Summer Heat
by Phantasmic Reflection
Summary: When the truth comes out that all of the girls are harboring feelings for Kirito, Asuna decides that things have to change. Harem story. KEIKO/SILICA'S LEMON NOW UP
1. Chapter 1: Revelations

So, I've noticed that there's a criminal lack of harem stories for SAO, and even fewer harem stories with lemons (I actually don't think that there are any that I've seen, or at least none that are any good). So, even though I personally find SAO to not actually be a harem series, I decided to cobble this together. I've tried to keep everyone in character as much as possible, but since I am making this a full on harem story, there's going to have to be some suspension of disbelief. The first two chapters won't have any lemons, but once I hit chapter three, they'll be coming on one after another, so I hope you'll bear with me until then. I can't promise super regular updates, but I'm writing this story as much for myself as for anyone else, so it's likely to continue relatively quickly. And finally, please leave reviews or send me PMs to let me know what you think. I want this to be as good as possible, and reader feedback is crucial to accomplishing that goal. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy!

Edit: Thanks to SaintInfernalNeos for pointing out a substantive error in the story! I've corrected it, and wanted to recognize you for your help!

 **Summer Heat**

 **Chapter 1: Revelations**

"And so we spent that entire night huddled up together inside of the dragon's nest. I think that was the first time that I actually realized how my feelings had changed in such a short time." Lisbeth leaned back into the green couch she was sitting on, a smile of contentment creeping onto her face as she recounted the pleasant memory. Even though the cottage she was currently in technically belonged jointly to Kirito and Asuna, it had unofficially become a sort of "home base" for the entire group, a place where they could all relax and unwind in Alfheim Online. Essentially, it had become a second home for each of them and enjoyed a special place inside each of their hearts.

Currently, the cottage was occupied by five girls: Lisbeth sat at the end of one couch, with Silica seated in the middle between the pink haired blacksmith and the golden-haired sylph, Leafa, who sat at the other end of the couch. Across from them a teal-haired Cat-Sith, Sinon, sat in one of the cottage's chairs. Her bow, which she typically kept strapped to her back, had been placed into item storage and it felt a little strange for the others to see the archer without her normally omnipresent weapon. In a second chair sat the last girl, a relative stranger to the close-knit group. Her short, dirty blonde hair contrasted with Leafa's long, golden strands. Without the hood she typically wore, the distinctive brownish-red whisker marks on her cheeks were clearly visible.

Argo gave a raucous laugh as Lizbeth's story wrapped up. "Nyahaha, I should've expected something like that from Kii-boy," she commented, "He always seems to end up saving one pretty girl or another." She grinned slyly as she glanced around the room, enjoying the embarrassed and self-conscious squirms that her observation elicited from the other four girls. "After all, it's the same for each of you, isn't it? That is the reason that you decided to meet with me to talk about our dear "black swordsman", innit?" Setting back in her chair, she allowed herself a smug smile, knowing that she'd hit the mark perfectly. However, she let the expression fall after a few seconds. "I guess I'm no different though, despite spending my time trying to get him and A-chan to stop being so stubborn and admit their feelings."

Lisbeth frowned at that particular remark. "To be honest, that's pretty much my story too. I tried to tell Kirito how I felt after we finished getting the metal from the dragon nest. I even got him to promise to make me his exclusive blacksmith! But then Asuna came rushing in, so happy to see that I was okay. One look at the gleam in her eyes when she saw Kirito, and I knew that she'd fallen for him first." The blacksmith gave a sigh, "She and Kirito weren't a thing yet, but I could tell how much he meant to her. She's my best friend and I couldn't hurt her by trying to make a move on Kirito myself."

That comment earned her a slight jab in her side from Silica's elbow. The beast tamer had an annoyed, slightly pouty expression on her face. "I thought that I was your best friend," she said in a near deadpan.

Leafa chuckled nervously as Lisbeth quickly attempted to placate Silica. "Of course Silica, but we didn't even know each other back then, and now since I've gotten so close with all of you I can't really pick any one of you as my absolute best friend! It'd be too difficult!" That seemed to at least somewhat satisfy the smaller girl, though she still seemed somewhat miffed at being apparently overlooked again. "Anyways, isn't it your turn to share now Silica?" Lisbeth continued, eager to move on from the little spat, "After all, I volunteered to go first, so it's only fair that you're next."

Silica flushed red, clearly embarrassed at the prospect of sharing some of the more private details of her first encounter with Kirito. She'd previously given the abbreviated version of her tale when she, Rika, Asuna, and Suguha had spent an afternoon at their school's pool teaching the black-haired kendo girl how to swim, but she'd deliberately omitted certain moments. Now, since they'd agreed to share their stories without keeping any secrets among themselves, that information would come to light.

Fidgeting with her skirt, she worked up the courage to start her story. "Alright," she began, "Some of you have already heard parts of this, but since Sinon and Argo haven't heard it yet, I'll start from the beginning. It was back on the thirty-fifth floor of Aincrad. I'd been part of a party to go questing on that floor, but I got into an argument with a girl named Rosalia. She didn't want to give me any healing crystals after we'd finished fighting the monsters in the area, since Pina can provide limited healing." She stroked the head of the small blue feathery dragon that lay slumbering on her lap. "So, I decided to leave. I was confident I could make it back to the town on my own, but… I got a little bit overconfident. I ended up getting lost and ran into four monsters at once. Pina…Pina sacrificed herself to save me, but even then I thought I was going to die."

She took another breath. "Then Kirito showed up and rescued me by destroying the monsters. He told me that there was a way we could revive Pina, but also that I'd never make it at my level. So, he gave me some items and offered to accompany me, telling me that he wanted to help me because I reminded him of you Leafa."

"Heheheh." Lisbeth chuckled at that comment, though a quick glare from Silica kept her from repeating a previous comment regarding the fact that Keiko and Suguha didn't look anything alike.

"Anyways, I treated him to cheesecake at the inn where I was staying, and we ended up sharing a glass of wine as well. I could tell that he was hurting deep inside, and he started deprecating himself even though he'd done so much to help me out. I couldn't help but try to help cheer him up. I grabbed his hand and he smiled at me, saying that he should be the one cheering me up. I think that was when I fell for him, but my heart ached because I didn't think he would ever reciprocate."

That earned some sympathetic nods from the other girls. Each of them had experienced the same feeling at one point or another regarding their swordsman friend. "That night, I was feeling lonely since Pina was gone, so I decided to go over to his room."

Leafa's eyes widened at that information, and Sinon's ears gave a slight twitch, indicating her surprise though her expression maintained neutral. Argo just continued listening attentively, while for her part Lisbeth's face lit up with a rather lewd smile. That just caused Silica to blush even more deeply. "Nothing happened!" she insisted, "We just talked and planned for our quest the next day and…I might have fallen asleep on his bed." She didn't even know if it was possible for her face to become any redder, but if it was, then she was sure that it was now the reddest it could possibly get. Fortunately, the other four were respectful enough not to interrupt and comment on that particular tidbit of information.

"The next day we went to the forty-seventh floor, which turned out to be the go-to spot for couples to go on dates. I have to admit that I wished that Kirito and I were there on a date like the others, but we didn't have time for something like that even if he had returned my feelings. The monsters on that floor were all these creepy plants. I'm pretty sure that Kirito ended up seeing my…my panties at some point, even though he tried not to look. The plants loved to grab at you with their vines and dangle you helplessly in the air. They're gross, and it was so embarrassing!"

"Ah! So that's why you hate those plant type monsters so much!" exclaimed Leafa, "I mean, I guess I've seen them grab at you before, but since you can fly it's never been that bad."

"Oh," said Silica, "I almost forgot that he told me more about you while we were walking, Leafa." A slight bit of sadness crept into her eyes. "He felt really guilty for making you dedicate yourself to kendo. He felt like he'd saddled you with that responsibility just because he didn't want to do it anymore."

"He never really told me about that," Leafa murmured softly, "Stupid Kazuto. He shouldn't have felt guilty. I love kendo and enjoyed every minute of it."

"That's what I told him," said Silica, "but you know how he is. He always places other peoples' burdens onto his own shoulders."

"I've noticed that as well," interjected Sinon, speaking for the first time in a while, "He can't seem to forgive himself for any previous mistakes, particularly if he thinks that he's hurt others. In a way, I can understand that feeling. I'm the same way."

Silica nodded in agreement before continuing, "After that, we found the pneuma flower, the item that could revive Pina, and started making our way back to town. It turned out that Rosalia was part of a criminal guild that had made a habit of attacking players and taking their items, even if they had to kill them. Kirito had volunteered to hunt them down and send them to jail, and knew that they'd come after the flower. When they attacked, he single-handedly took them all on and teleported them to jail. He felt so guilty for using me as bait and tried to leave as quickly as possible once we'd brought Pina back to life. But, I told him that I didn't mind because he was a good person…and then we promised that we'd meet up in the real world once we'd beaten the game." She let out a breath, having finished her recounting. "And that's it, I guess."

"Ya know, Kii-boy spoke rather affectionately of you," Argo commented, "He said that it was nice to get to spend time away from the front lines for a while with someone who wasn't a clearer. Plus, you always seemed to know where the best food was on some of the lower floors." Ignoring the fact that Silica's face had begun twisting into a combined expression of happiness and embarrassment, Argo turned to face Leafa. "I think that it's your turn now Ms. Leafa," she said matter-of-factly, "and to be honest, your story is the one I'm most looking forward to hearing."

Now that it was her turn in the spotlight, Leafa paled more than a bit. This was an extremely uncomfortable topic for her, and not even just in the same way that it was embarrassing for the other girls to talk about. She and Kirito were cousins, and even if they weren't direct blood relatives they'd still been raised like brother and sister. When her feelings had first developed, she'd tried to suppress them, and there was still a lingering self-hatred inside her for allowing herself to hold on to those feelings. But, she had to be honest with herself and her friends: despite knowing how wrong it was, she was still in love with Kirito. She was in love with her cousin.

She figured that it would be best to get it over with quickly, like peeling a Band-Aid off. "Silica touched on this a little bit, but when we were younger, Kazuto and I practiced kendo with our grandfather. He was very strict, and one day Kazuto decided that he'd had enough, so he quit. Our grandfather started beating him until I jumped in and said that I'd work hard enough for the both of us, as long as he let Kazuto go. After that, Kazuto started growing more and more distant; he'd avoid me and our parents and mess around in his room with his computers instead."

"Then he ended up trapped in SAO. I was so worried that I'd visit the hospital one day and hear that he'd died. Eventually, after some research, I found out that we actually weren't siblings. That shouldn't have mattered, but I started to understand why he'd been avoiding me so much. And, I started to think about how I'd view him if we hadn't been raised together. I was so stupid," she remarked bitterly.

"That's not true," Silica interjected, leaning her head against Suguha, "I mean, I felt the same way."

"We all did," Lisbeth said, provoking a nod of agreement from Sinon, "I guess sometimes you can't pick who you fall in love with. That doesn't suddenly change just because you guys are family."

"I guess you're right," Leafa remarked resignedly, letting out the breath she'd unconsciously been holding. Even after everything that she'd been through with the other girls, she'd still expected them to see her as a horrible person, a freak, for harboring feelings towards Kazuto, her cousin and adopted brother. She should have known better though. Lisbeth, Silica, Sinon, Asuna, they were all amazing friends, and it was disrespectful for her to think that they'd abandon her over something like this. And while she didn't know Argo like she did the others, clearly the self-proclaimed "Rat" already knew or suspected most of what she was discussing anyways. Plus, if she was good enough for her brother to trust, then she was good enough for her as well.

"After Kazuto came back from SAO, he started acting kinda weird. We hadn't really associated with each other much since we were kids, but now he seemed like he wanted to really reach out to me and make up for lost time. I was so happy, but at the same time it just caused my feelings to worsen. Plus, he regularly went to the hospital to visit Asuna, so I knew that another girl had already won his heart. I didn't hold it against either of them, but it just… made me feel so empty inside knowing that they shared something so special that I could never know."

"Then one day when I was playing ALO, I was facing off against a trio of salamanders who'd decided it would be fun do some sylph hunting. I was planning on facing them alone, and I knew I could take at least two of them with me, but then this random spriggan fell out of the sky and beat two of them in only a few seconds, leaving the last to fly off. He called himself Kirito, and even though he was obviously really strong, he didn't have any idea about how ALO worked. All he wanted was to get to the world tree as quickly as possible and he said he was looking for someone. His eyes were so empty that I couldn't help but feel compelled to help him out."

She chose to omit the fact that she'd secretly been wanting to leave sylph territory for quite a while. Racial competition in ALO had largely disappeared after the game's rebirth, so it wasn't particularly relevant to the story. "As we made our way to the World Tree, Kirito really started growing on me, and maybe part of it was me trying to replace my feelings for Kazuto. Kirito went out of his way to prevent the salamanders from attacking the sylph and cait-sith leaders, even though he was so clearly desperate to reach the World Tree as soon as he could. It was so much fun swapping banter with him, exploring the world, and fighting side by side. But then, when we actually got to the World Tree, he just threw himself at it and the guardians inside, even though he couldn't beat them. Then I found out that he was my brother."

Leafa clasped her fingers together, the memory causing noticeable discomfort. "When I found out, I was just…broken. It felt like life itself was mocking me, with me trying to bury my feelings for Kazuto and replace them with love for Kirito, only to find out that they were one and the same. I broke down and yelled at Kazuto, telling him all of the feelings that I'd sworn to keep locked inside me forever."

A bittersweet smile adorned her face. "But he didn't hate me, or yell at me, or tell me I was wrong. He even threw a fight that we agreed to and apologized to me for everything, as if he had done something wrong." Leafa brushed away a tear that had inadvertently began sliding down her cheek. "After he and Asuna reunited and ALO opened back up again, I didn't want to join everyone. I felt out of place, like I didn't belong. But he danced with me in the moonlight, and invited me to help him clear New Aincrad. Without that, I'd never have really gotten to know all of you, and that was the moment that I realized that I couldn't throw away my feelings. Even if I can never act on my feelings, I still love Kazuto with all my heart."

Silica gave an audible "aww" at the simple cuteness of Leafa's account, while Lisbeth sat laughing to herself, struggling to not make some rather… crass comments. Sinon just nodded sagely in understanding and Argo seemed to be considering the story. It wasn't long however, before eyes turned towards the archer, causing Sinon to frown slightly and shake her head.

"I guess that makes it my turn, huh. Since you're all sharing I suppose I have to do the same. And it might feel nice to get it off my chest too." Sinon sat up a little straighter in her chair, trying to look as composed as possible as she began her story. "You've all seen Kirito's GGO avatar, right? Well, that was how I first met him. I bumped into him on one of the streets in Glocken, Gun Gale's main city. I sort of…figured he was a girl because of his avatar's appearance, and it certainly didn't help that he declined to correct my initial assumption."

She scowled slightly as she recounted the memory. "Apparently he figured that I'd be more helpful if I thought he was a girl, and he was right. He said that he wanted to participate in the BoB tournament, so I showed him around the city, helped him pick out his gear, and gave him advice on money in the game." An almost imperceptible smirk etched its way onto her lips. "At first he was practically dead broke, with only the little bit of starting funds that the game gives you. Then, when he decided to use all of it on one of the game's rigged challenges, I thought that he was completely nuts. But his reaction speed…it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I'd watched a ton of players who thought that they were hot shit try to win the challenge and collect the prize money only to fail spectacularly. But Kirito didn't even seem to have to try all that hard to do it. At that point, I knew that Kirito wasn't just some ordinary player."

"So after that, he decided to blow most of his money on that fancy photon sword, which I thought was a little silly, even though he seemed really comfortable with it. But, we'd lost track of time shopping and were about to miss the registration deadline for BoB. Kirito just rented one of the motorcycles and we booked it over the central plaza; I didn't think I'd ever be riding one of those things, but it was really fun to rush through the city like that."

Silica and Lisbeth gave some jealous looks towards Sinon as she talked. They still hadn't had a chance to ride with Kirito on his bike, unlike Asuna, Suguha, and Sinon. If the archer took notice of their envy, however, she didn't comment on it. "After we got registered, I dragged him to the changing room, since I still didn't know that he was a guy." She gritted her teeth, hot anger filling her as she recalled how humiliated and embarrassed she'd felt. "He had the nerve to wait until I'd already stripped down to my underwear before telling me his real gender! So, of course I gave him a well-deserved slap before tossing him out of the room."

That earned another apologetic smile from Leafa, as well as some subdued snickering from Lisbeth. The blacksmith found it humorous to imagine the normally cool and composed archer getting so flustered in a situation like that. A quick steely glance from Sinon shushed Lisbeth, and she continued her account. "I didn't want anything to do with him after that, but he kept pestering me until I finally told him about how the tournament worked. I told him that he'd better make it to the finals so that I could get some payback, but when I saw him again after the first round, he seemed really shaken up. I thought it was nerves, but he just seemed so…haunted." A slightly distant look filled Sinon's eyes. "It was the same look that I'd seen so many times when I looked at myself in the mirror. The eyes of a person plagued by guilt. I hated and pitied him at the same time, because he reminded me so much of myself. Then, he tried to throw the match against me in the finals. It was insulting, and I thought that he didn't even think I deserved a fair fight."

"But, he seemed to realize how selfish that attitude of his was, and we ended up having a duel to determine the winner. When he cut my bullet in half from such a close range, I thought that was the kind of strength that I needed. But that wasn't where his strength comes from. He managed to accept his demons and continue on despite the guilt of the lives he'd taken. You guys watched everything that happened during the BoB, but when Kirito and I were in that cave together, I just didn't care anymore. I wanted to die, because I didn't think that anything could take my guilt away. I didn't think anyone could understand what I was dealing with. But, for the first time, someone finally seemed to actually care about me and what I was struggling with. Kirito didn't treat me like a pariah, like most of the people who've learned what I did. And he didn't treat me like I was some delicate thing either. He actually wanted to get to know me and cared about me as a person, no matter how much I yelled at him. That kind of guy is one-in-a-million, and I knew that I wanted to meet him in real life after the tournament."

Sinon gave a slight sigh. "After that, Kirito came over to my apartment and rescued me as I was being attacked. I'd prefer not to talk about that, if it's all right." The other girls nodded; they'd heard enough about the incident with Kyouji Shinkawa to know that it wasn't a topic to reopen. "Anyways, you all know what happened after that. I haven't been able to let go of my feelings for Kirito and so I've had to settle for messing with him as much as possible, even though it hurts to know that I never had a chance with him."

The room was quiet for a moment after Sinon finished. All five of the girls felt the same way, and even though this session had helped a little bit by getting all of their feelings out into the open, that still didn't change the fact that each of them felt empty knowing that Kirito would never return their feelings. Unsurprisingly, it was Lisbeth who broke the silence. "Say, isn't it your turn to talk now Argo? After all, you're the one who orchestrated this and made us all spill our guts. So come on, let's hear it!"

"Nyahaha!" Argo laughed, "If you want that information, it's gonna cost ya!"

Shouts of disbelief came from the other girls, who were clearly outraged that the information broker seemed to be stonewalling them. Argo just smiled, taking pleasure in the entire situation. "Relax. I did say I'd tell ya my story, but I didn't say I'd do it for free. I've gotta keep my reputation as a hard-bargaining information dealer after all. But, in the interest of fairness I won't charge ya too much. Just 500 yld from each of you and I'll gladly tell you all how Kii-boy and I met."

The other four girls grumbled, but they each eventually opened their menus and transferred the requested funds to Argo, who continued sitting smugly in her chair with her legs crossed as she looked at the others. She might be an outsider within this group, but she had more experience with MMOs than any of them, and had known Kirito longer than any of them except Leafa. Plus, her longtime role as an info broker had taught her the best ways to persuade others to act as she wished and to make them believe that she always held all of the cards, regardless of whether that was actually true.

The Rat checked her inventory, confirming that everyone had properly paid up, then swiped it closed. "A pleasure doing business with ya!" she said, her tone far too chipper for the others' taste. "Now then," she began, "It was a few days in to the SAO beta when Kii-boy and I first met. I tried playing around for a bit as a fighter, but sneaky characters have always been my thing and I quickly lapsed back into old habits. The whiskers seemed to fit that persona perfectly, so I started marketing myself as the Rat, the first and only professional info broker in the beta." She deliberately excluded the origins of her famous whiskers. Even though anyone who had taken on the quest for the martial arts skill in old Aincrad would probably have an idea of how she'd originally gotten them, only herself and Kirito knew the full story. She intended to keep it that way, so unless someone paid her the exorbitantly high fee that she reserved for that information, no one else would ever be privy to that rather embarrassing information.

"As you can guess, I managed to make a name for myself rather quickly," Argo continued, "Most players didn't have the patience to spend time discovering and researching all of the hidden secrets and gameplay information that had been littered throughout Aincrad, plus there were always people eager for information on other players. Of course, that also meant that none of them trusted me much beyond what information I could provide them with. Well, one day I got a request from a small party that had been involved in clearing the third floor. Apparently, they were a bit miffed because someone else had been getting the last attack bonus in on several of the bosses, which meant they were missing out on the rare drops. They didn't seem to know much about the guy, just that he tended to dress in black and stayed on his own for the most part. So, they hired me to find out as much about him as possible and send him into an ambush so that they could teach him a lesson…"

* * *

(Flashback)

Argo had been looking for her mark for the past two hours without much success. It was rather obnoxious to try finding a player when the only information she really had to go on was that he dressed in black. That could potentially describe any number of people, even though the majority of the beta players stuck to dressing in rather bright colors, ones more fitting for Sword Art's high fantasy setting. Finally, however, her patience seemed to pay off. A player had just logged in, dressed in dark pants and a black cloak. It was hard to be sure that he was the one she'd been hired to track down, but the fact that he immediately went racing off out of the town, paying absolutely no mind to any of the other players around him, made her intuitively know for certain that this was her target.

She let him run a fair bit ahead of her before activating her sneak and search skills and following after the boy. He seemed to know where he was going, rather than wandering aimlessly, so at least that meant she hopefully wouldn't be stuck racing around all afternoon. Finally, about ten minutes out of the town, the black-clad boy stopped, to Argo's slight confusion. She'd assumed that this guy had been planning on farming some of the mobs on the floor, the usual reason why people wandered out of the safe zones and into the wilderness, but there didn't seem to be any spawns around to hunt. As she crept closer, she was able to get a better look at her quarry. He certainly didn't look particularly impressive or notable. The only visible weapon that she could see was a simple one-handed sword strapped to his back, and even though she was sure it had been upgraded by a smith (since there was no way someone would take part in a raid using only basic, un-upgraded equipment), it didn't seem to be anything special. And, underneath his cloak he just wore clothes, rather than any visible armor. Most players tended to put on as much heavy armor as possible, since its mobility drawbacks and weight were vastly overshadowed by its defensive properties. The fact that he seemed confident enough to go adventuring without such armor made her all the more intrigued.

"Whoever's out there, why don't you go ahead and show yourself." The boy suddenly spoke, his tone matter-of-fact rather than angry. Argo jolted slightly in surprise, then grinned. This was the first time she'd found someone who'd invested enough time in their search skill to be able to see through her sneaking. She'd gotten her sneak ability about as high as it could practically be raised given how long she'd been participating in the beta, so even though the system favored players' detection abilities versus the attempts of other players to hide, most players only wanted to focus on flashier and more immediately useful combat skills.

Turning her sneak setting off, Argo stepped out of the shadows where she'd been hiding. "Heya!" she said in greeting, "That's an impressive detect level that you've got there! So, who might you be?"

"My name's Kirito," he said almost automatically in reply. He seemed to realize how odd it was that someone had been following him without even knowing who he was. "So, who are you?" he asked, "And what are you doing following me?"

Argo wagged a finger. "Hey now. If you want that kind of information, it's gonna cost you."

"Are you serious?" the boy, Kirito, asked, flabbergasted, "I just told you who I am, and now you're going to charge me for your name?"

The Rat shrugged. "That's just how it works. I've built myself a reputation as an information broker, so selling details people want to know is sort of my thing. If I just go about giving information out for free, all of my business would dry up pretty quick. But don't worry, everything's for sale! Fifty col and I'll tell you my name. For 20,000 col I'll even sell you all the details of my level, abilities, and inventory!"

"Seriously?" Kirito replied, his tone deadpan. Argo just kept grinning until the boy reluctantly opened his inventory and transferred fifty col to the Rat.

"Pleasure doin' business with ya," Argo said, "My name's Argo, and like I said, I'm the one and only information broker here in Aincrad." She thought for a moment. "Come to think of it, I should have waited and sold that little piece of information to ya too."

"That still doesn't answer my question of why you're out here following me," Kirito observed. "Don't tell me. That's going to cost me again, isn't it?" Argo couldn't keep her shit-eating grin off her face, which provided all the answer that Kirito needed. "How much?" he said.

"That depends," Argo responded, "I can tell you why I'm out here, who, if anyone, hired me, and if anyone did hire me, I might tell you why!"

"Alright, how much for 'all of the above'?" Kirito said, not wanting to get stuck in a never-ending series of microtransactions.

"Well, you've been a pretty good sport about all this, and knowing how high your detect skill is might be pretty useful," Argo replied, "So, how about I sell you all of the information for 1000 col? Or, you could pay half that and owe me a favor!"

"I get the feeling that owing you a favor might not be in my best interest," Kirito replied drily. He opened his menu again and transferred another thousand col over to Argo.

"Well, that's too bad," Argo said, slightly disappointedly. She could think of many uses for someone with such a high search skill, and it was always useful to have favors that she could call in. "Anyways, a trio of players, DFlameMaster, Kriddick, and Ramos, hired me to track you down and give them whatever information I could find out about you. They also wanted me to lead you to a spot so they could ambush you, if I could pull that off. I think they're a bit pissy 'cause they think you've been takin' the last attack bonus away from them in the last few boss raids."

Kirito rubbed the back of his head, apparently slightly embarrassed about the subject. "I guess I have been scoring the last attack for the last several raids. I didn't think anyone would be that upset though." His expression changed to one of curiosity, "Won't your clients be a bit upset that you sold them out so willingly?"

"Nyahaha!" Argo chortled, "I never said anythin' about maintaining their privacy! I've made it pretty clear that I'm willin' to sell any information I can get my hands on, so they've got nothin' to complain about!" She did make a mental note on the subject though. The fact that people wanted to hire her to get various pieces of information was a valuable detail in itself. Maybe once the game fully released she'd see how much people were willing to pay to maintain their anonymity. Anything to increase her bottom line!

"Still," Kirito continued, "I don't think they'd be too happy that you just told me everything about their plans. What'll you do if they decide to come after you?"

"What, you're worryin' about me now?" Argo asked in confusion. "You're the one that they're plannin' on PKing after all."

"Maybe, but you've been pretty honest, even though you've been shaking me down for it," the boy observed, "and I'd hate to see them take their anger out on you. How about you tell me where this ambush is supposed to be, and I can resolve this once and for all. That way, you'll still have fulfilled your end of the deal, right?"

Argo blinked in momentary surprise, then shook her head as her smile shifted to one of amusement. "I suppose that could work if ya really want to do things like that," she said, "but I have ta let ya know that that's one of the most hilariously naïve things I've heard in quite some time. What'd ya say your name was? Kirito?"

The black clad boy nodded.

"Eh, that doesn't seem properly fittin' to me," Argo said matter-of-factly, "I'm gonna call ya Kii-boy. That's much more appropriate for someone so naïve!"

Kirito groaned. "Could you please not call me that?"

Argo's grin widened. "Nope! I've made up my mind! You're 'Kii-boy' from now on!" Turning away, she began to walk off. "If you wanna see where these guys are at, just follow me!"

* * *

The ambush site had been set about twenty minutes away, far enough from any safe zones that it wouldn't be easy to retreat to safety once things got hairy. There were always teleport crystals, but those were notoriously difficult to use in PvP encounters due to the time delay required to activate them. Argo had to admit that these three had at least done their basic research in picking an appropriate spot to gank someone.

As expected, the three conspirators were trying to hide their presence, though their sneak skills were so painfully weak that Argo could see through it with ease. And, of course, if she could see them, then that meant Kii-boy wouldn't have any trouble spotting them either. Argo strode nonchalantly into the clearing, with Kirito following pretty closely behind her. As soon as they were somewhat surrounded, the three ambushers dropped their attempt to hide and move towards Kirito and Argo, attempting to look as menacing as possible.

Kriddick, who had apparently assumed the leadership role for the three, moved in closer, armed with a solid looking sword and shield. That particular combination had proven to be the most popular combat build for the beta, as it provided both solid damage and strong defense. "Nice work Rat," he said to Argo, with a noticeable emphasis of distaste on her title, "I wasn't sure that you'd actually get him here and we'd have to settle for trying to plan a different ambush. I guess you earned all that money we spent hiring you after all."

Argo didn't bother replying to the man. She just looked at Kirito, apologetically gave a slight shrug, then hopped outside the enclosing ring that Kriddick and his cohorts had formed. DFlameMaster had apparently decided to build an axe wielder, sacrificing the defensive properties of a shield in favor of greater damage from the brutal two-handed weapon, while Ramos brandished a spear, allowing him to attack from further away than a standard melee weapon could reach. Argo felt a twang of sadness and guilt. Kii-boy had been looking out for her, and he'd actually been pretty fun to mess with. Not many people were willing to play her game and still show concern about her in the end. But, it had been his choice after all. She just hoped that it wouldn't be too ugly to watch. She'd already grown a bit too fond of the black-clad swordsman.

DFlameMaster decided to attack first, and to Argo's surprise, Kirito artfully dodged the swing, making it look clumsy and unrefined, then immediately grabbed the sword off his back and lashed out, sending the axe wielder stumbling backwards, his HP already knocked into the yellow. His reaction speed was impressive to say the least, rather high praise for the agility focused Argo. Seeing their comrade forced back so easily prompted the other two to attack together, trying to put Kirito off balance. The tactic worked moderately well, with Kirito struggling to fend off both the spear and sword striking in his direction, but the fight seemed rather evenly matched.

DFlameMaster picked himself off the ground and seemed to sense an opening as the black swordsman seemed too focused on deflecting the other two attackers. Rising to his feet, he made a quick dash towards Kirito, ready to hit him while his back was turned.

"I wouldn't advise that," Argo muttered to herself, already anticipating what was likely to happen. The axe wielder launched into his attack, and Kirito rolled to the side, taking himself out of harm's way. And clearing the way for DFlameMaster to end up skewered by Ramos's spear. DFlameMaster let out a gasp of surprise before his HP dropped to zero, followed by his avatar shattering into fragmented crystals. He was likely to be in a bad mood once he respawned in the nearest safe zone, given the substantial death penalty the game imposed.

Ramos soon shared his friend's fate as Kirito took advantage of his shock to dash inside the range of the spear and deliver a few well-placed strikes, draining his HP as well. That left Kriddick, whose eyes widened in surprise at the swift and ignominious defeat of his fellows. "Dammit," he cursed, "You'll pay for that you little shit." Bringing his shield up, he cautiously moved in once more, lashing out with his sword when he the chance and deflecting counterblows with his shield.

Now, the fight seemed like it would be a draw. As skilled as Kirito was, his fighting style didn't lend itself well to a skillful, shield-wielding opponent, and both players only managed to slightly chip away at each other's HP.

Kriddick seemed to realize that they were in a standstill as well. "Hey, Rat!" he suddenly shouted, "I'll pay you triple if you help finish this guy off!"

Triple, huh? That was quite a bit of col right there… Argo swiped at her menu and equipped the clawed gauntlets that she'd taken a shine to as her main weapon on those occasions where she did need to fight. Kirito saw her equip the weapons, and his eyes grew wide for a moment. Then, he turned his back to her, shifting his attention completely to Kriddick.

 _That_ confused Argo. Why would he turn his back to her? After all, she'd just been asked to attack him, and he'd seen her equip her weapons, so why would he just ignore her like that? Well, it didn't really matter too much. She'd already made her decision after all. With lightning speed, she dashed towards Kirito, claws at the ready. Then, at the last moment, she ducked down and slid, passing underneath the weapons of both Kirito and Kriddick, slashing at the latter's legs with her claws as she passed under. The unexpected attack sent Kriddick toppling to the ground, and he looked at Argo in shock.

"But, I told you I'd pay you to attack this guy!" he protested, "I thought that you never turned down an opportunity to make money!"

Argo scowled slightly, removing the hood that she normally wore, so that her face was fully visible. "Listen here," she said sternly, "I'm an information broker, not a mercenary. I might sell every last bit of information on a person, but ya can't just pay me to attack someone. At least I've got standards, apparently unlike you." She gestured towards Kirito. "I guess you can do whatcha like with this one Kii-boy," she said, "My part in this whole thing is done."

"You should leave," Kirito said to Kriddick, "I'm not going to attack you while you're helpless. But it's definitely not cool to gang up and try to attack someone like that."

Kriddick got to his feet, rendered to a sputtering wreck at the offhanded reprimand, and slowly walked off, mumbling curses at Kirito and Argo and griping about how unfair things were. Once he was out of sight, Kirito sheathed his sword on his back once again.

Now it was Argo's turn to ask the questions, a rather unusual position for her. "What was the deal with that?" she demanded, "You saw me gettin' ready to attack ya, and yet you turn your back? What kind of idiot move is that?"

"I knew you wouldn't attack me," Kirito replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"How could you possibly know that?" Argo continued to press, "You've seen how stingy I am and how much I love makin' money. How could you not think I'd attack you if I got paid for it!?"

Now it was Kirito's turn to smirk. "Hang on. I think that if you want that information then it's going to cost you. How about 500 col if you want to find out."

For the first time in a long while, Argo smiled in a way that wasn't full of self-assuredness or aloof amusement. It was a simple smile of happiness at finally finding someone willing to play her at her own game. She immediately transferred the col to Kirito. "Now then, what could your reasoning possibly have been?"

"Simple," Kirito responded, "I trust you. You might be willing to sell any kind of information, and you might be really stingy, but through our entire conversation you were completely honest. You were fair and transparent with me, and a person like that isn't the type to stab me in the back on a whim, no matter how much money is offered."

That kind of attitude was so…stupid. And yet, he wasn't wrong. It was nice to find someone who actually saw beyond her aura as an information broker. She had become so used to people keeping her at arm's length and refusing to trust her because of her status. "Man, you really are naïve, aren'tcha Kii-boy," she said, her usual cocky demeanor returning, "Ya know, someday that's gonna come and bitecha in the ass. But, at least today you're not wrong." She considered for a moment. "I've already grown a bit fond of you, Kii-boy. How about you add me to your friends list? I'm sure that we could get into plenty of trouble together."

Now it was Kirito's turn to look a bit uncomfortable as he paled ever so slightly. "I, uh, don't really add people to my friends list. I'm used to playing solo, you know?"

"Oh come on now," Argo chided, "ya can't just go through an MMO without making at least a few friends!"

"Well I have," Kirito shot back.

That made Argo grin again. "Are ya tellin' me that you don't have anyone on your friends list?" Kirito reluctantly nodded in affirmation. "Great!" Argo crowed triumphantly, "Then I get to be yer first!" She sent the friend request, and watched as Kirito stared at it hesitantly for a few seconds. She looked at him with a gaze that she hoped told him that he didn't have any choice in the matter, then allowed herself a smug feeling as he finally accepted. "Great!" she proclaimed, "I'm lookin' forward to working with ya again in the future!"

Kirito looked a bit nervous about that, but didn't press on the issue. Instead, he took a different route. "Anyways, Argo, I heard them call you 'Rat' a few times. Are those whisker marks on your face? Why did you get those?"

Argo grinned once again. "You don't ask a girl the reason she puts on make-up, do ya? I'll tell you for one hundred thousand col."

Kirito's jaw dropped at the outrageous figure, amusing Argo even more. Oh yes, she was very much looking forward to getting to know Kii-boy better. And maybe, after the game officially released, she could see about claiming him for herself…

* * *

(End Flashback)

The other girls had been listening to Argo's story with rapt attention, each of them curious to hear how the Rat, the first of them other than Leafa to have actually met Kirito, had first become acquainted with the black swordsman. As her story concluded, Argo curled up in her seat, quite pleased with how this whole meeting had gone.

"So, I guess in the end, we're all just hopeless," commented Lisbeth, breaking the comfortable silence following the last tale, "We all managed to fall for that dork even though it was obvious that he and Asuna were going to end up together."

"Yeah," Sinon agreed, "I can't help but imagine what things would have been like if I could've had a chance with him. He and Asuna always look so happy, and along with Yui they seem like the perfect, ideal family."

"Yui really is sweet," Leafa said in agreement, "and to be honest…I've been imagining what it would be like to have that same relationship, to have a child with the person I love."

"Have you now?" Lisbeth said, a lewd grin making its way onto her face once again, "That'd be fun to see, especially with your…assets." That comment caused Leafa's face to flush crimson, and she couldn't even stammer out a reply. "But, I guess I'm not much different," the blacksmith continued, "I mean, having a kid is kinda supposed to be the ultimate sign of how much two people love each other."

Silica looked rather nervous at the conversation, but hesitantly chimed in. "I've never really taken care of anything more than Pina, but…sometimes I do think about what it would be like to have a baby with Kirito. He's never seen me as anything other than a little sister though, so it's just a dream."

Sinon snorted a bit. "I wonder what says about us then, since we're all thinking pretty much the same thing. What about you Argo?"

The Rat gave a grin, her expression almost lewd enough to put Lisbeth's to shame. "Isn't it obvious? Of course I'd love to convince Kii-boy that he should have a kid with me. It's only natural for girl to want her man to give her a family. Even with A-chan having Yui to dote over, I'm pretty sure that she's feelin' the same way." Argo turned her head towards the hallway further in to the cottage. "Isn't that right, A-chan?"

A squeak came echoing from behind the wall in the hallways, and other four girls' attentions immediately snapped towards where Argo was looking. Asuna's blue-haired undine avatar nervously walked out into the open, and the faces of all the girls other than Argo paled substantially.

"You knew Asuna was there the whole time and you still let us say all that?" Lisbeth demanded of Argo, though her voice was rather scratchy.

"Oh she wasn't there the whole time," Argo assured, "Only since about halfway through your story!"

Lisbeth's jaw dropped and she turned to face her closest friend, who was staring rather blankly at all of the other girls in the room. "Asuna," she said, trying to salvage what little she could, "I'm so so—"

"All of you like Kirito?" Asuna said softly, cutting the blacksmith off, "This whole time, all of you have wanted Kirito for yourselves?"

Lisbeth grimaced, and Leafa, Silica, and Sinon looked away guiltily, none of them able to meet Asuna's gaze. For her part, Argo just sat patiently, wanting to watch how the scene unfolded. "Asuna," Lisbeth started again, "I'm sorry that I never told you how I really felt. We all are." The others nodded in agreement. "We just didn't want to hurt you or interfere with you and Kirito, because the two of you have always been so happy together."

" _You're_ sorry!?" Asuna stated, her incredulous tone surprising Lisbeth and the others, " _I'm_ the one who should be sorry. I had no idea that you all have been hurting yourselves, just so Kirito and I could be happy. I don't want that! You all are my best friends, and I don't want to keep hurting you like this."

"No, it's fine," Sinon said, trying to assuage Asuna's conscience, "We all know how important Kirito is to you, and how happy the two of you are. We could have tried to do something before now, but we didn't because we want the two of you to be happy together."

Asuna shook her head. "No…no, this isn't right. It's not fair for me to be taking all of the happiness for myself! I couldn't live with myself know that I'd just let all of you turn your backs on your own happiness just for my sake."

This was roughly what Argo had imagined might happen. A-chan, like Kii-boy, was rather softhearted deep down. That's why she had gambled on this in the first place. If she'd thought that there was any real chance of A-chan being angry after learning about the other girls' feelings then she would have cut them off the moment she'd noticed her arrival. Leaning forward in her chair, the Rat looked at Asuna expectantly. "So, then, what do you plan to do, now that you know all this, huh A-chan?"

Silence followed her question, since Asuna clearly didn't have a response prepared. After a short while, Silica was the one to finally speak up, to everyone's surprise. "Well," she began hesitantly, "we all like Kirito, don't we? I mean, that's what this whole discussion has been about, right? Maybe…maybe we could share him?"

That was certainly a surprise to Argo. The solution itself had been obvious, but of all the people to initially suggest such a thing, Silica would have been her last guess. Maybe she'd underestimated the beast tamer. "Nyahaha, I think that sounds like the most appropriate plan, given the circumstances. Whaddya think A-chan?"

Asuna was quiet, apparently still trying to process the suggestion in light of everything she'd just learned.

"How would that even work?" Sinon asked, "I mean, share him? It just doesn't seem very practical."

"No," said Leafa, finally ready to voice her own thoughts, "I think Silica's right. I mean, of course we couldn't all marry him. The law certainly wouldn't recognize that, but then again, I probably wouldn't be able to marry him anyways. But, even if we can't officially marry Kazuto, we could all still get him to love us. It might be a little weird, and I'm sure if other people found out they might not understand, but it still seems like the only way for all of us to be happy."

"It'll definitely be weird, at least at first," Lisbeth remarked, "But I could definitely think of worse outcomes." She turned to face Asuna again. "And this way none of us have to feel left behind. Right Asuna?"

The undine nodded slowly in agreement. "The real issue is convincing Kirito to go along with it," the blacksmith continued, "He's usually so clueless that I doubt he has any idea of how we all feel. And it was hard enough for Asuna to get him to admit how he felt. How much harder is it going to be for all of us to convince him to return our feelings?"

"I'll take care of that," Asuna said softly. She forced a smile onto her face and tried to look and sound more confident. "Yes, I'll take care of that! It might be difficult, like you said, but we've all got the next few weeks free, right?" Each of the other girls nodded. "Good. Then I'll set up a trip to the beach with us and Kirito. That'll give us some relative seclusion, and we can confront him there. I'm sure that he'll listen if we all work together."

"Well, I guess it's a plan then," Argo declared happily, "It'll be fun to finally meet Kii-boy and the rest of you all IRL! I'm sure he'll be quite surprised." She turned to address Asuna directly. "One last thing A-chan. I'm sure that you got to hear our entire conversation, so there's something in particular that I think we all want during this trip…"


	2. Chapter 2: A Proposal

**Well, I hadn't exactly planned things this way, but I feel that it's rather appropriate that this is being updated on Thanksgiving (at least where I'm at). I'd like to express my thanks to the 135 people who decided my story was worth following, the 97 people who've chosen to favorite this, and the 17 people thoughtful enough to leave a review. In particular, I'd like to thank SaintInfernalNeos and KnightEstoc for their assistance and feedback. If you like SAO harem fics like this, I'd encourage you to check out their stories, _SAO: The Eroge_ and _Stand Together and Smile_ if you haven't done so already. I can say with comfortable certainty that these two have done a far better job in executing their harem stories than I could ever hope to do.**

 **This chapter took a while to push out, and it seemed to start to get away from me at points, but I still hope that everyone enjoys it. This'll probably be the chapter with the most OOC moments, but hopefully it's nothing too terrible. As always, please leave a review to let me know what you liked and what can be improved upon. This story is constantly evolving and being updated to correct errors and anything that I'm not happy with, so if there's anything egregious, be sure to let me know, and it might end up being changed. My main issue personally is transitioning from scene to scene, but with any luck it's not too rough. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!**

 **Chapter 2: A Proposal**

The summer heat was uncomfortably oppressive, forcing Kazuto Kirigaya to wipe the sweat from his brow as he continued working. Unfortunately, the air conditioning at the Kirigaya residence was out, and despite opening as many windows as possible, the house largely still felt like an oven. It didn't help that at the moment Kazuto was working on a rather delicate project that required close attention and was causing a fair bit of stress, making him sweat even more. "Let me adjust the joints just a little more," he instructed, speaking towards a small hemispherical object, "Alright. Try it now."

"Okay daddy!" came the cheerful voice of Yui, the artificial intelligence program whom Kazuto and Asuna had adopted as their daughter. Since she couldn't physically interact with the real world, most communication there was done through the camera Kazuto was speaking towards, a project that he had spent countless hours making into a reality. He'd wanted Yui to at least be able to see, hear, and communicate with the real world, and his work had been a huge success. And yet, it still wasn't enough for him.

After Dr. Shigemura's sudden retirement from Kamura, many of his projects had been abandoned, including several partial robotic constructs and schematics for future versions. Kazuto had asked Seijirou Kikuoka, whom Kazuto had worked with a few times before, if he could have access to the materials. After hearing Kazuto's explanation for why he wanted access to the machinery, Kikuoka had worked to get clearance from his superiors and allowed limited access to Dr. Shigemura's work.

As one of the brightest minds in the technology sector, Dr. Shigemura's plans were among the most advanced designs that anyone had come up with, and combined with his reckless desire to revive his daughter, his talent had led to some incredibly sophisticated and high-functioning robotics, which one day could likely emulate a real person with a high degree of accuracy. However, not only had Shigemura seemingly disappeared after his retirement and the incident with Ordinal Scale, but even though Kazuto had been allowed to study some of the plans and partially constructed robots, the government had refused to let him keep any of it, which he supposed was understandable. Unfortunately that made his work of trying to design a robotic body that Yui could integrate with, thus allowing her mobility and a physical form in the real world, much more difficult. Kazuto had a knack for electronics and machinery, but he lacked Dr. Shigemura's talent and expertise. Even with the head start that the doctor had left behind, it had been a slow and painful process of trial and error.

The mechanical grinding of metal joints moving rang throughout the room as the machine slowly began moving. Its legs extended, bringing the "body" up to its full height of about four feet, and its "head" rotated so that the camera was facing towards Kazuto.

"Everything seems to be working so far daddy," Yui reported, her voice chirping through the speakers rigged up to the camera.

"Alright," Kazuto replied, relieved that everything seemed to be going properly so far. "Why don't you try walking this way a bit and see if there are any problems."

"Okay," Yui responded, a hint of uncertainty in her voice. The robot took a step forward, then another step, then suddenly it seemed to stumble and toppled to the ground with a loud clanging noise.

Kazuto sighed. "I must have gotten one of the joints wrong again. Sorry about that Yui."

"No daddy," Yui stated, surprising Kazuto slightly, "As far as I can tell, all of the joints and everything else seem fine. It's just…it doesn't feel right when I try to move it. It's like, instead of moving my body, I'm trying to manipulate it. Trying to control it doesn't feel natural."

So, another hurdle. After several months of tinkering, he'd managed to work out most of the mechanical defects in the designs so, even though it would still be rather clumsy and far from optimal for what he wanted, he'd hoped that he'd have at least a functioning prototype for Yui to use. But, now it seemed like there was a new problem properly integrating her consciousness into the robot itself. That was likely to be a much trickier issue than the simple mechanical changes that he'd made previously. However, he'd already been working on this for several hours, and the heat only made things worse.

"Alright Yui," he said reluctantly, "I guess we'll just have to leave it there for today and try to fix that problem next time." Moving to the toppled machine, he carefully removed the camera from its perch and clipped it back onto his shoulder. "Thanks for all your help Yui," he said, "I'm sorry that it's still not working after all the time we've spent on it."

"It's okay daddy," the AI responded, "Even if it never works, I'm still happy that I'm able to interact in the real world at all!"

Kazuto smiled at his adopted daughter's cheerful optimism. He often found it difficult to stay positive, but the attitudes of Yui and Asuna, and hell, all of his other friends, made sure that he rarely sank too far back into gloominess and pessimism. He knew that it wasn't fair to put everyone's burdens on his shoulders or blame himself for when things didn't work out the way he wanted, yet he still couldn't help feeling like he was constantly letting everyone down. His life had been marked by so many failures that constantly haunted his memories:

* * *

 _Fighting desperately against the monsters that had spawned in the room, he watched in horror as the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats were cut down around him: first Ducker, then Tetsuo, then Sasamaru. Only he and Sachi were left. Slashing his sword around like a mad dervish, he frantically cut his way through the stone monsters in order to reach Sachi, who was barely fending off her attackers. But, as he drew within a few yards of her, one of the creatures struck her in the back. She seemed to fall in slow motion before her body disintegrated into pixelated crystals, leaving a leaden emptiness in his gut. He'd promised her that she wouldn't die. He had failed._

* * *

 _Keita cursed him as a beater after discovering the deaths of his friends. Kirito couldn't blame him. He'd lied, and his lie had cost the lives of four people. He deserved to be reviled, to be treated as an outcast. Suddenly, Keita climbed onto the stone fencing marking the boundary of Aincrad. Too late, Kirito realized what was happening and dashed forward trying to stop him. Instead, he watched as Keita plunged into the endless abyss beyond the floating castle, his body breaking apart after reaching the system's boundaries._

* * *

 _Kirito wanted to rest after the battle, but he couldn't. He didn't deserve to rest. Instead, he watched as the remaining members of Laughing Coffin, captured by the assault team's members, were marched away to the jail within the Black Iron Palace. But he hadn't taken any prisoners. Instead, two more people were dead because of him. They may have been ruthless, and he might have been in the heat of battle, but that was no excuse. He was much more powerful than they had been. He could have captured them, as so many others had. Instead, he'd cut them down, his fear overpowering his restraint. It made him feel sick. So, he determined not to think about it, to bury those memories deep down. Then maybe, one day, he'd forget._

* * *

 _He stared blankly at his wife, Asuna, who hunched over on the floor sobbing in pain. Yui, their adopted child whom they had grown to love so much is such a short time, was gone, her form deleted by the system in front of their eyes just for defying the game's stupid rules. All he'd wanted was to make Asuna happy and ensure that she made it out of Sword Art Online alive. Instead, he'd made her cry again._

* * *

" _I'm sorry." The words cut Kirito to the bone as he watched his wife's body shatter in his arms. Asuna, the person that he loved the most, was gone, sacrificing herself to save him. Why did this always happen? He was just a magnet for misfortune, and everyone who he allowed to get close to him ended up suffering. The hollow feeling inside him was worse than anything he'd ever felt before. All he'd wanted was for her to survive, even if it cost him his life. Now, she was dead. Reaching out, he grasped Asuna's rapier with his left hand and stood, weakly swinging his other sword at Heathcliff. He didn't care any more. All he wanted was for someone to put him out of his misery._

* * *

 _Kazuto slumped against wall outside of Suguha's room. He'd screwed up. Again. After coming back from Aincrad, he'd wanted to make up for lost time, to rectify his old mistakes by treating Suguha like a sister again instead of a stranger. How could he have not seen it? She'd found out that they weren't really brother and sister while he'd been unconscious, then he'd come back and started getting close to her again. It was perfectly sensible for her to start feeling confused by the whole situation. But, he'd never imagined that she would fall in love with him. And then she'd fallen for Kirito too, trying to reject her thoughts towards him, only to suffer more because he hadn't been honest with her. All he'd wanted was to repair he and Suguha's relationship. Instead, he'd just hurt her more. Just like always._

* * *

 _As he sat next to Asuna in the hospital, the diagnosis finally came in: memory loss that had targeted her memory of the events of Aincrad. Memory loss that could very likely get worse. She looked shell-shocked, like she was unable to comprehend the absurdity of the situation. Kirito hated himself. Once again, he hadn't been strong enough, and Asuna had suffered for it. If only he'd been there with her, if only he were stronger, faster, then he could have stopped that douchebag who had attacked her and Silica. But he wasn't._

* * *

"Daddy," came Yui's concerned voice, "Are you alright? Your face is looking really pale."

Her voice shook Kazuto out of his dark thoughts. "Yeah, I'm okay," he said, "Just thinking about the past. I've let so many people down that I don't want to let you and Asuna down too."

Yui smiled. "You shouldn't worry about that," she said, "As long as I have you and mommy, and Aunt Leafa, and Silica, and Lisbeth, and Sinon, I'm really happy! You could never let me down, so you shouldn't be so hard on yourself!"

Kazuto gave a small smile. "Thanks Yui," he said sincerely, "I guess I needed that."

"Anyways, have you decided when you're going to ask mommy?" she asked, moving the conversation towards a happier topic, "I know how much both of you want to get married here as well as in Alfheim, so you should ask her as soon as possible!"

Yui's enthusiasm and cheerfulness was infectious, banishing any of the remaining negative feelings from Kazuto's earlier wandering thoughts. He unconsciously glanced over at one of the drawers underneath his bed, wherein he had stashed a specific item: a ring that he had bought to officially propose to Asuna. About three months earlier, after the fiasco with Dr. Shigemura and Ordinal Scale, he'd given her a ring like he'd promised to do back in Aincrad, but he hadn't officially proposed. It hadn't felt quite right at the time, especially since he hadn't even met her mother yet.

But now, things had changed. Not only had he met Asuna's mother and gotten what he could only assume passed as her tacit approval to stay with Asuna, but now he actually had a solid job prospect as well. Begrudgingly, he had to admit that much of the credit for that had to go to Kikuoka as well. While Kamura had been in flux following Shigemura's departure, Kikuoka had apparently recommended Kazuto as a potential new talent to bring in. With his record testing various games and other electronic projects for Kikuoka and the Ministry of Internal Affairs' Virtual Reality Department and current academic focus on electronics development, he had a solid resume to offer. With Kikuoka's recommendation, Kazuto had been offered an internship with the company, and while he initially hadn't felt particularly useful, apparently his supervisors were impressed enough to keep him on. In fact, they seemed pleased enough by his performance that they'd already offered him an entry level position with their technology's research and development department after he graduated. With the modest pay from his internship and a solid job offer, he'd finally felt comfortable enough to buy a real engagement ring and finally pop the question to Asuna. He was just waiting for the right moment.

"I haven't decided yet," he confessed to Yui, "but it'll be soon, I promise. We'll be an official family both here and in ALO."

A buzzing noise alerted him to an incoming call on his phone. He saw Asuna's picture on the screen, telling him that it was her who was calling. Reaching over, he picked up the phone and answered it. "Hey Asuna," he greeted, "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing great Kirito!" she said in reply. Her tone sounded rather upbeat, so Kazuto was glad about that. "So, I'd been talking with some of the others, and we were thinking of taking a trip to the beach for some relaxation. Did you want to come along? I know that you've been busy with your job, so I figured you could use a break as much as any of us."

Kazuto's eyes lit up. A trip to the beach? That sounded like the perfect opportunity that he'd been waiting for to propose. And Asuna was right; he had been rather stressed lately, not only with his work at Kamura, but also with this side project trying to design a working body for Yui. A relaxing vacation at the beach sounded like just what he needed. "That sounds great!" he responded, "When were you guys planning on leaving?"

"I think we decided that Sunday would work the best," Asuna replied, "And we were thinking of staying for about a week and leaving the following Monday. Would that work for you?"

Kazuto thought for a moment. He'd have to ask for time off, but things hadn't been overly busy lately and his supervisors had a reasonably generous leave policy, provided that he gave them at least a few days' notice. "Yeah, I think that should work fine, but I'll let you know for sure tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll look forward to hearing back from you tomorrow," Asuna said, "I love you."

"I love you too," Kazuto responded before hanging up. This was looking better and better. A much-needed vacation _and_ a chance to propose? He certainly hadn't expected an opportunity for both to come his way, even just a half-hour earlier. He was a little nervous, but also quite excited. Now he had something that he could really look forward to…

* * *

Asuna's undine avatar shimmered for a moment as it spawned in to their lakeside cottage. The room was dark, given how late it was, but she still pulled up her friends list for a moment to make sure that Kirito wasn't in Alfheim currently. She took a moment to steady herself, trying to figure out exactly what to say. This was not a conversation she was looking forward to having, but it wouldn't be right to break the news to Kirito until she'd done this.

"Yui?" she called, "Are you here?"

A small flash of light flickered in the air for a moment as her daughter appeared in the room, taking the form of one of the game's navigation pixies. She glowed again as she changed into her child form, the form that she took when she had first met Kirito and Asuna, and which she only took when she was alone with one or both of them. "Hello mommy!" she exclaimed in greeting as she leapt into Asuna's arms, embracing her with a warm hug.

A soft yet warm smile came to Asuna's face. Yui was incredibly dear to her, second in her heart only to Kirito. Every moment that she got to spend with her daughter was precious, and yet that only made the upcoming discussion all the more awkward. "Hi Yui," she said gently as she stroked her daughter's hair.

Yui smiled, enjoying the embrace and affection that Asuna was giving her, but stepped back after a few moments, her smile shifting to an expression of concern. "Is everything okay mommy?" she asked, "You seem a little tense, and your brainwaves indicate stress or discomfort."

Asuna was taken aback for a moment, but realized that her surprise was foolish. It was often difficult to remember, given her usual naïve attitude and childlike behavior, but Yui was a hyper advanced AI designed to assist people with their mental health. Of course she would sense that Asuna was concerned and nervous. Taking in a breath, Asuna slowly spoke, trying to choose her words carefully.

"Yui," she began, "did you know that Lisbeth and the others had feelings for Kirito?"

Yui frowned a bit. "I could sense that some of them liked daddy, but none of them have ever tried to get between the two of you. Aunt Leafa was getting a little bit close back when she and daddy were trying to rescue you in ALO, but even then I wasn't too concerned." She seemed to straighten up and gave a stoic and determined look, a small note of pride on her face. "I made sure that no one would ever get between you and daddy. It wasn't easy because other girls were constantly throwing themselves at him, but I wouldn't let anyone but you and me hug him or get too close."

That made sense. Yui had always been very protective of Asuna and Kirito's relationship, which Asuna had been grateful for given the number of women who had tried to make moves on Kirito in order to take advantage of him. She was far more relaxed around the others in their friend group though. Was that because she could tell that they were holding their feelings back for her sake? Regardless, that protective attitude made Asuna nervous about telling Yui of her decision.

"Why are you asking about this now mommy?" Yui asked, a hint of concern in her voice, "Did something happen? I didn't think anyone would try to interfere with you and daddy's relationship."

Asuna shook her head. "No, none of them tried anything. It's just…I never knew about their feelings before, and it's not fair that they should be so miserable while I get to be happy with Kirito. So… we decided that we're going to tell Kirito about all of their feelings and convince him to accept all of them too."

Yui just stared for a moment, clearly not understanding the situation. Then, as she finally processed the magnitude of Asuna's words, her eyes widened. "So Lisbeth, Silica, Sinon, and Leafa are all going to marry daddy too? Are you really okay with that mommy?"

"I am," Asuna replied, conviction in her voice, "but it's not like they'll all be marrying Kirito. Only he and I can actually be married, but I still want him to return all of my friends' feelings. I didn't know how long they'd been suffering, keeping their love for Kirito bottled up just so that he and I could be happy. The only way for everyone to be happy is if we convince Kirito to love them just like he does me." She considered for a moment. "Oh, and there's one more person that you left out. Argo. I don't think that you've ever met her, but she's really great too. She was one of my first friends in SAO, along with Kirito."

Yui still seemed a bit doubtful about the proposal. "What if daddy doesn't feel the same way as the others? He's always dedicated himself to you, and like I told you when we first met, there's a really special feeling and bond that only the two of you share."

"It might be a surprise for Kirito, but I can't believe that he would purposely break everyone's hearts," Asuna said, "He's always done everything he could for other people, and that's largely why Liz and the others developed feelings for him in the first place. Besides, it can't be that unusual for something like this to happen, can it?"

Her daughter seemed to ponder that for a moment. "I suppose that you're right," she conceded, "Several cultures seem to have accepted polyamorous relationships before. But just…please don't make daddy do anything that he doesn't want to do. I know how important the others are to you, but I want you and daddy to both be happy more than anything else. As long as he's okay with this, then I don't mind either."

Asuna smiled at that. "Don't worry Yui," she assured, "I want your daddy to be happy too. But I think once he hears everyone out, he'll agree with our decision. Can you not say anything about this to him about this? We're going on a trip, and that's where we're going to tell him."

Yui nodded. "Okay mommy," she agreed, "I won't say anything until after you guys tell him."

"Alright then," Asuna said, relieved to be done with the uncomfortable discussion, "Well, I guess I'll be back to see you again soon." She wrapped Yui in another hug. "I love you Yui," she said.

As always, Yui returned the hug eagerly, reveling in the embrace. The two maintained the hug as Asuna opened her menu to log out, leaving her daughter with the lingering feeling of warmth from the embrace. She was left pondering the news that Asuna had given her; now, she was keeping two secrets, one from her daddy, and one from her mommy. Both would come out on this trip that they were going on. She only hoped that everything worked out well in the end.

* * *

Kazuto sat across the table from Suguha, both of them munching away at the food that Suguha had fixed. Their parents were working late again, leaving the two of them alone, which wasn't exactly unusual. Kazuto had arranged for a two week break from his work, so everything seemed ready to go the next day. However, he still hadn't gotten around to packing for the trip. He tended to have a bad habit of procrastinating on things like this, so he'd likely be up fairly late making sure that he didn't forget anything.

On the other side of the table, Suguha gazed smugly at her cousin. "So Kazuto," she said, "have you finished packing for the trip tomorrow." She knew full well that he hadn't even started.

"I'll get around to it," he replied somewhat defensively, "I've had a lot on my mind lately. Besides, I pretty much know what all I need to bring, so it's not like it'll take all that long anyways."

"I don't know," Suguha said, "As I recall, the last time we were on a trip, you ended up forgetting to pack any socks. Not the best situation when you're out camping, huh?"

Kazuto grimaced at that memory. By the end of that trip, the one pair of socks that he did have had gotten so grungy and worn down that they practically tore apart when he finally tried taking them off. And he didn't even want to think about the fungal infection that he'd gotten as a result of not being able to change into clean socks for almost a week. That had taken almost a month to get rid of. "Fine," he said defeatedly, "I'll make sure that I'm not missing anything as soon as we finish eating."

"Good," Suguha said in satisfaction, "So, anyways, are you excited about this vacation Kazuto? I figure that you could use a break from all your mecha… mechaponics.

"It's mechatronics," Kazuto chided, correcting her mispronunciation of the engineering research that we worked with. Honestly, he couldn't tell if she was just messing with him, or if she still genuinely couldn't remember what it was called even though he'd been working with it for months now.

"Yeah, that, whatever," Suguha said, dismissing the correction, "You're always so busy with either that at your new job, or with whatever you've been working on for Yui, so you should take the opportunity to relax and have fun for the next week. It'll do you a lot of good to let yourself destress for once." She left unsaid how she hoped that he might let off some of that stress. She was still rather apprehensive about the plan. How would Kazuto react when he found out? But, that was still in the future, and there wasn't any point worrying about it now.

"I guess you're right," Kazuto replied, "Things have been pretty crazy lately. I just feel bad taking time off while I still have so much left to do."

Suguha stood up from her chair and walked over next to Kazuto before lightly flicking him on the forehead. "That's because you've turned into a workaholic Kazuto," she said, "and it's exactly why you need this trip so much. We all could use a break, but you definitely need it more than any of us."

"Alright, alright," Kazuto conceded, attempting to placate Suguha, "I'll try my best not to worry too much."

"Good," she replied, "because if you keep acting this somber after we've left, I'm gonna flick you again. Now, how about you start packing already?"

Kazuto groaned.

* * *

Keiko sat curled up in her favorite chair in her family's living room, her cat Pina curled up in her lap. It was remarkable how similar the mannerisms of both her in-game pet and its namesake were. The cat used to be a relative ball of energy as a kitten, but the years had mellowed her out quite a bit. Now she spent most of her days lounging around, which was just fine with Keiko.

Unsurprisingly, it was just her and Pina in the house. Her parents were out of town again for work. But she was used to it. Having Pina around meant that she at least wasn't totally alone. Still, Keiko was very much looking forward to their beach trip. She'd already prepared everything she wanted to bring with her for the trip the next day. She and the other girls had decided to try and split the duty of providing different things for the trip, and she'd volunteered to bring sunscreen and basic medicines and first aid materials just in case they needed them. Asuna was providing them a place to stay, since her family apparently owned a beach house that they maintained but hadn't actually used for a few years. Rika and Argo had agreed to pay for food on the trip, since they had reliable jobs and could afford to cover for the group, and Suguha had promised to bring towels and other beach necessities for the group. Shino hadn't wanted to feel like she wasn't contributing, so she was paying for the group's train fare, despite everyone telling her that that wasn't necessary.

Keiko had been looking forward to this ever since they'd first made plans for the trip. Growing up, she'd never really had all that many friends to spend time with, and her years in Aincrad wouldn't have helped much in that regard. But, she'd met Rika, Asuna, Kirito, and the others there, and they'd proven themselves to be the best friends that she could possibly hope for. Having a full week to spend with the people closest to her would be great. But, of course, she was nervous as well. A lot of long and deeply buried feelings would finally be exposed, including her own. She knew that Kirito wouldn't ever do anything to hurt any of them, but how would he feel once he found out what they had planned? And that wasn't even touching on what they actually planned on doing…

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, Keiko gave her head a shake, eliciting a somewhat annoyed look and a "mroww" from Pina, who had shaken around slightly by the unexpected movement. No, it was decidedly too soon to worry about that. What would happen would happen, and thinking about it wouldn't help. All it would do is stress her out. Grabbing the remote, she briefly scanned through the channels until she found something interesting and sat back to watch, allowing all of her apprehension of the days to come to slip from her mind.

* * *

Stretching her arms, Rika stepped out the convenience store she'd been working at, enjoying the feeling of actually being able to move around a fair bit after being cooped up for the past six hours. Working for someone else was a pain, particularly when they liked to impose such stringent rules on workplace conduct. It definitely wasn't a place she wanted to continue working for long term, but she'd finally been able to move out and needed to support herself. Sure, she had a reserve of money paid out to the victims of Sword Art Online and their families by Argus before it went completely under, but after factoring in all the medical costs that needed to be covered, she didn't feel comfortable trying to live solely on those monies in the long term.

Her parents tried to help her out as much as they could, of course, but she was determined not to continue making them pay for her. Her family wasn't poor, but money was still something they had to think about; she knew it was hard enough for them to pay for everything as it was, and they didn't need her costing them even more. Plus, she needed to start saving for school as well. Even with the educational delay caused by the two years she'd been trapped inside SAO, she was still near to graduating, and she needed to think about what her future was going to be. She'd always been a good student, and her grades meant she could probably get into several different schools, but that didn't necessarily mean that she could comfortably afford them. So, she'd been working and saving as much as she could to keep her options as open as possible.

It had been tricky to convince her employer to let her have the next week-and-a-half off, but fortunately they understood that she was still both a student and a part time worker. Even as hard-assed as they typically were with their rules and procedures, they still remained willing to work with their employees as long as they were given sufficient notice. So, this would be her last shift for the time being. Now that she was done working, she could actually think about the upcoming beach trip. She was looking forward to getting to actually relax and take life easy for a change, and all of her best friends would be there with her. Not only them, but the boy she loved, Kirito, would be there too.

This would be it. No more hiding her feelings, no more being content with just teasing Kirito about he and Asuna's relationship. Finally, she'd be able to tell him exactly how she felt, about the feelings she'd kept bottled up since that night in the dragon's den two years ago. Of course, that didn't mean that she wouldn't still tease him and the other girls. She was already eager to harass all of them with various choice remarks. After all, that was just who she was. But, a part of her suspected that she might be hard pressed to match Argo in the teasing department. The information broker seemed to have been born for tossing barbs at other people and always knew just the right way to get under people's skin without actually making them outright angry. Yes, Argo would definitely be a tough act to beat. But she had a reputation to keep! There was no way she was going to let Argo usurp her spot as the group's lovable gadfly.

Looking at the evening sky, she couldn't help but be reminded of that night with Kirito. Of course, given the summer weather it was much warmer now than it had been on Floor 55, but nevertheless she could almost feel the memory of Kirito's hand against hers. He was a giant doofus and he could be all kinds of dense and insensitive when it came to dealing with girls, but he'd also thrown himself in harm's way just to save her. She knew that that was the kind of person he was; he'd put himself in danger to save someone even if he didn't know who they were. She'd fallen in love with him for it. And tomorrow, she'd finally let him know it. But first, she still had some packing to get done…

* * *

As she removed her amusphere, Shino blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting back to the brightness of her apartment after being accustomed to the rather gritty and dim lighting that pervaded the world of Gun Gale Online. After integrating so fully into the Alfheim group, she'd spent most of her time online questing with them in ALO and hadn't had much of an opportunity to devote time to GGO. She certainly didn't mind playing ALO; using a bow provided a different yet equal challenge when compared to her Hecate sniper rifle. The virtual wind parameters tended to be significantly more impactful on her arrows than on a bullet, and even though her ability to accurately shoot a target just over 200 meters away with her bow had already made her quite famous in Alfheim, that still required her to get, at least in her opinion, uncomfortably close to her target. It was much different than being able to send a kill shot from nearly ten times that distance with her Hecate.

So, since she'd had a few free hours after finishing preparations for the next day's trip, she'd decided to visit some of her old hunting grounds. She'd considered asking Kirito if he'd be interested in joining her, but after considering that she was likely to get all the time that she wanted with him during the trip, she'd thought it better to let him be for the moment. Plus, it would mean that he'd either have to convert his ALO account back over to GGO, which she found unlikely, or he'd have to start from scratch with a brand-new account. That would probably entail her trying to keep him from getting himself killed by acting overly cocky and thinking he could replicate his usual performance with new player stats. That would definitely get a hard pass from her.

So instead, she'd decided to just go hunt some of the higher-level mobs in the subterranean dungeons beneath the ruined cityscape. Nothing too challenging for her, just a chance to keep her sniping skills from getting rusty. Of course, not long after she'd logged in, Dyne had tracked her down and tried to cajole her into joining him on one of his PKing raids. She'd agreed, as long as he was willing to actually engage with some of the other higher-level players rather than sticking to ambushing groups coming off of hunting NPCs. She'd figured that he'd decline, but to her surprise he'd actually taken her up on the offer. That had led to quite an intense evening. Some of their opponents had even managed to get in some potshots at her, with one bullet actually hitting her in the shoulder and throwing off her aim for almost an hour. But in the end, she'd added another 16 tallies to her list of confirmed kills, all from competitive players, and once again reminded GGO why she was the best sniper around.

Dyne hadn't done poorly either, racking up seven kills for the night. He seemed to have matured a bit since the last time Sinon had played with him. He was still spouting all kinds of braggadocios trash about his previous accomplishments, most of which Sinon was fairly certain were blatant lies, but at least he seemed to be more willing to engage in a fair fight than he had been previously, and wasn't still as inclined to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Plus, she had to admit that he was above competent as a player.

But, that didn't mean that Sinon was eager to hang out with him all that often. She hadn't gotten around to doing so yet, but she really should ask Asuna and the rest of her new friends to make GGO accounts so that they could go questing in Gun Gale at some point. Rotating herself, she plopped off of her bed and walked out to get something to snack on before heading to sleep. As usual, when she reached her refrigerator, she forced herself to stop and look at the crude little crayon drawing that she'd hung prominently on the front. Even after working to move past her trauma from that horrible day, persistent nightmares continued to plague her from time to time. Occasionally, something would remind her of what it felt like to really kill, to watch the life leave the robber's eyes as his blood spread across the floor and stained her clothing. When that happened, she immediately felt sick, like she didn't deserve to continue living when she'd taken the life of another.

Things hadn't been easy, but she'd confided in Kirito about her continued guilt, knowing that he could understand her feelings. After all, he'd killed three people, even if their deaths hadn't been as visceral and personal as her victim's had been. He'd told her that it wasn't unusual for her to continue lingering upon those feelings, and offered to introduce her to someone with whom she could talk. That person, Nurse Aki, may have been rather…eccentric, but she was actually rather good at making her feel comfortable, allowing her to vent her feelings and give what advice she could.

After that, she'd been referred to a confidential support group of people with similar problems. That was the last thing that she'd wanted to do, but Kazuto had offered to join her if she wanted to see if that was any help. And it actually did feel somewhat good to know that she wasn't alone, that there were others who had experienced what she was going through. It wasn't an experience she wanted to repeat, but it had helped. For now, she just needed that precious sketch that little Mizue had given to her, reminding her that, while it was appropriate to feel sorrow and guilt for the life that she had taken, she should also remember the lives that she'd saved through her actions.

After pouring herself a glass of juice and grabbing a small bag of chips, she headed back to her room. Kirito…or should she think of him as Kazuto? It really didn't matter she supposed. Regardless, the boy had been on her mind from almost the very moment that she'd met him. At first he'd infuriated her, compelling her to work even harder in order to surpass him. Then he'd become a reliable partner, a rather strange one certainly, but someone that she knew she could trust to watch her back. Then, when she'd finally bared the truth of her past to him and he'd responded with such genuine empathy, she'd fallen in love with him. Of course, he still pissed her off fairly regularly and she in turn relished every chance she had to mess with him, but that was just how they interacted with each other. It's what made their friendship work.

Would that all still be the same after tomorrow? It would be nice to finally tell him how she really felt, but she didn't want to lose that comfortable rapport that she'd developed with Kirito. Things were always so simple when he was around. She didn't have any experience with love or relationships, and it actually scared her to think that he might not see her the same way after she confessed her feelings. But, that was the way things were. Life was filled with uncertainties, and you couldn't escape just by trying to avoid them. Steeling herself for the coming day, she continued on down the hall. This would be the same as anything else: just one step at a time…

* * *

"Kazuto! Hurry up!" Suguha yelled up the stairs, "If we don't head out soon we're going to be late!"

"Give just a moment!" Kazuto replied wearily. He'd been up till nearly two in the morning making extra certain that he wasn't forgetting to pack anything that he'd need for the trip, which made the relatively early morning meeting time that much worse. Fortunately, Suguha has been kind enough to let him sleep in until just before they needed to leave. Unfortunately, that meant that now he was in a mad rush to pull everything together. He'd already gotten a quick shower, thrown on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, all black of course, and tried to make sure that he was at least reasonably presentable. Seeing as he was going to be stuck on a train for most of the day with everyone else, they'd be sure to notice if he'd neglected his personal hygiene.

Grabbing his bags, he raced down the stairs and found himself face-to-face with Suguha. With an amused smile on her face, she handed him a plate with two pieces of toast.

"Thanks," he said, grabbing the food and starting to munch away on it.

"Come on," Suguha instructed, turning to walk out the door, "You can eat on the way"

* * *

Fortunately, most of their trip to the train station was by bus, which meant that Kirito had plenty of time to relax and enjoy his breakfast in relative peace. Once they arrived at the station, they wheeled their luggage out of the bus and checked to see if they could spot any of the others.

It wasn't long before they found them. Shino and Asuna had already arrived and were standing near one of the large transit maps detailing the various routes throughout the city. The two spotted Kazuto and Suguha, eliciting a smile from Shino and an enthusiastic greeting from Asuna. "Kirito! Leafa! It's good to see you two again!"

Suguha pouted for just a moment, slightly irritated that she and Kazuto hadn't been the first to make it to the station. It lasted only a split second though; she couldn't stay angry when she had this trip to look forward to. "Hey guys!" Suguha replied in greeting, "I hope we didn't make you wait too long!" She shot a mock glare at Kazuto. " _Someone_ couldn't seem to get himself up this morning."

"It's not my fault," Kazuto protested, "I was up late last night getting everything packed for this trip!"

"Kirito…" Asuna said sweetly, "Maybe you shouldn't have put off your packing until the last minute then."

Shino shook her head. "Seriously, you've had, what, a week to prepare for this? I can't believe that you're still this lazy."

Kazuto brought a hand up to rub his head. Why did this always seem to happen when he was around the girls in the group? They seemed to relish taking every chance to give him crap over every little detail. Of course, he loved to mess with them too, so it's not like he didn't deserve it. "Anyways," he said, trying to shift the conversation away from his poor time management habits, "What have you been up to lately Shino? It's been a few weeks since I've really seen much of you."

She gave a shrug. "I guess I've just been doing what I normally do. Since I don't have classes currently, I've been trying to earn some extra money. I managed to convince my favorite book store to give me a part time position, since I probably know the store and its organization better than just about anyone else. The pay's not amazing, but it's nice to have some extra income, particularly money that I've actually earned." She paused for a moment. "Also, I was able to spend some time in GGO for the first time in a while. I forgot just how good it felt to have Hecate in my arms again." She pinned Kazuto down with a stare, "As I recall, you still owe me a rematch at some point, buster, and I intend to collect on that. The next BoB is scheduled for December, and I expect you to be there."

"Ah, of course," Kazuto replied nervously, "after all, it wouldn't really be fair to leave you hanging after our tie the last time, huh?"

Shino gave a dangerous smile. "No, it wouldn't. I'm going to enjoy putting you in your place this time. You'd better not come in with some crazy story for why you don't want to fight, like you did last time." She looked over to Asuna and Suguha, her smile becoming warmer and less hostile. "Of course, the rest of you should try out as well. I'd love to show you guys how intense GGO can be. Just don't insist on using a sword like a certain someone."

Kazuto gave a sheepish smile at that remark, but Suguha grinned excitedly. "That sounds awesome!" she said, "I'm more accustomed to swords, but after watching Kazuto going up against all those players last time I think it would be really cool to get to use guns for a change."

Shino smiled at Suguha's eagerness, then turned to Asuna. "What about you Asuna? Would you be up for trying out GGO? It's definitely a lot different from Alfheim, but it's actually pretty fun once you get the hang of things."

"Well, I can't say I've ever really had any interest in shooting games," Asuna said, "but I guess it's getting to spend time with everyone that's important, right? Maybe I'll really enjoy it!"

"Hey! You guys had better not be making plans without us again!" came a call from across the station. Kazuto, Asuna, Shino, and Suguha turned towards the source of the voice and saw Rika, Keiko, and a third girl, only the slightest bit taller than Keiko and sporting a messy tuft of brown hair. The three late arrivers scurried over to where the other four had been waiting.

"Nice of you to finally show up Rika," Kazuto commented snidely, "We were just about to leave you behind."

"Oh shut up," Rika replied, "Not all of us live quite as close to this place as you guys do." She gave a sneer as she continued, "And given how disheveled you look, I'm guessing you weren't exactly ready to be the model of timeliness this morning either. What, did Suguha have to drag you out of bed again?"

Kazuto declined to answer that particular question, given how much grief he'd already gotten on the matter. Instead, he looked rather confusedly at the third girl. She seemed vaguely familiar, but he couldn't seem to recognize her. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "but…have we met before?"

The girl put her hands on her hips, looking indignant. "I'm rather insulted, Kii-boy" she said, her voice filled with over the top mock indignation, "I thought we were friends. What do I have to do, paint whiskers on my face or somethin'?"

Realization struck Kazuto like a freight train. "Wait, Argo!?" he exclaimed, incredulity filling his voice.

She grinned. "The one and only! But, I thought that it was impolite to call people by their avatar's name IRL."

"So, then what should I call you?" Kazuto asked in confusion.

"I don't know," Argo responded, her grin growing broader as she slipped back into her typical interaction with the black-haired boy, "How much money do you have on ya? Are you sure you can afford that information?" Kazuto's face paled as he remembered Argo's notoriously extortionist personality. Argo decided to let him squirm for a moment before she couldn't contain her laughter anymore. "Nyahaha! You should see your face Kii-boy!" she taunted, "Did you really think I was gonna charge you for my name? It's not quite as convenient to shake everyone down here as it was in Aincrad after all, and I'd say I owe ya a fair debt for finally gettin' us all out, so any information here is on the house." Letting her rather devious expression fall, she continued, "Anyways, my real name's Michiko Yoshida. Honestly though, I'd prefer it if you still called me Argo. That's how we met each other after all."

Kazuto had to think about that for a moment. On the one hand, he generally didn't care for calling people by their avatar name in real life, as he found that it muddled the lines between the real and virtual worlds. But, on the other hand, he'd long stopped trying to correct Asuna's tendency to call him "Kirito", and he knew that, after being stuck in Aincrad for two years, it was difficult to shake the habit of calling people by the name's he'd known them by. Plus, Argo clearly preferred that name, at least from him anyways, so it was probably proper to use the name she wanted.

"Alright then," Kazuto said, "If that's what you want, I'll keep calling you that. Anyways, it's nice to actually see you again. But how do you know everyone else? And how'd you end up getting an invitation to this trip anyhow?"

She shrugged. "I know a lotta people," she replied, "but interestingly, you made for a useful common acquaintance. You're pretty popular, so of course everyone was interested in some of the more…interesting stories I had of you from back in SAO. Of course, I've kept the best ones for myself. I'm sure that people would pay quite a bit to hear some of those, so I'll keep those for whoever can pay the largest sum." She grinned evilly at Kazuto, "So that means if you want any particularly embarrassing stories to stay buried, you'd better start working on saving to buy them yourself. As far as how I got invited here, let's just say that being an information broker gives me some leeway in persuading people, and leave it at that."

Kazuto had the sneaking suspicion that Argo had somehow blackmailed her way into this trip, but even if that were true, she'd never admit it. Or, she'd at least bankrupt him before admitting it. So, it was probably better to just let the matter drop.

"Anyways," Keiko chimed in, "Are you guys excited for this trip? I know I am. It's been a long time since I've gone to the beach. This'll be so much fun!"

"Heck yeah it'll be fun!" concurred Rika, "I've been stoked for this ever since we made plans to go!" She looked over at Shino. "Thanks for buying our tickets, by the way," she said, "Like I said, you didn't have to do that. I know that money's been rather tight for you, so if you want me to pay you back for my ticket, I'd be more than happy to."

Shino shook her head. "No, it's fine, really," she assured, "You're already going to be paying quite a bit more, and like I was telling Kazuto, Asuna, and Suguha earlier, I found myself a part time job, so money isn't quite as big a concern for the moment. And, speaking of tickets," she pulled out the bundle of train tickets that she'd been holding on to, just as the station announced the arrival of their train, "here you all are."

"Wait," Kazuto said slowly, "this is everyone that's going?" He'd expected Klein and Agil to be invited as well. The fact that neither of them were coming meant it would just be him and…

He looked around at the six girls, comprehensions finally starting to show on his face. This was certainly going to be…different. All of a sudden, he felt very awkward. It wasn't like being surrounded by women was unusual, given that the majority of his friend group happened to be female, but even so, being the only guy on a trip to the beach with six girls…

Rika seemed to notice his apprehension and gave a sneer. "What's the matter Kazuto?" she asked, "Can't handle being on a trip with six pretty girls?"

That snapped Kazuto back to reality pretty quickly. Why was he so concerned? This wasn't any different than any of the other times he'd hung out with all of these women. "I think I can handle it just fine," he said assertively, taking his ticket from Shino.

"We'll see how well you can back that up," muttered Rika, her voice low enough that none of the others could hear her. As the train came to a stop, the seven friends headed aboard, eager to depart and looking forward the relaxing vacation ahead of them.

* * *

Being stuck on a train for several hours tended to be rather boring. Fortunately, Kazuto's exhaustion from his previous late night made it easy for him to drift off to sleep. After about an hour though, he woke back up, feeling reasonably refreshed. He was sure that he could use more sleep, but his body just didn't feel like it at the moment.

With a yawn, he sat up in his seat and glanced around the train's cabin, seeing how the others were passing their time. Asuna had apparently been even more tired than him, because she was still laying back in her seat, headphones in her ears, listening to whatever music was on her playlist. Rika and Keiko were sharing a set of headphones, with Keiko loudly humming along to the music, while Suguha looked scribbled furiously, working on a coloring book that she'd brought along.

Meanwhile, Shino had curled up, almost like a cat, reading a rather worn book; her hands mostly obscured the cover, but he could still make out the title: _Ryuou Densetsu_. From what he could tell given the art on the book, it looked to be a fantasy novel, though given Shino's taste in literature, that shouldn't have been a surprise at all. Lastly, Argo, or Michiko rather, sat busily typing away at a laptop, the rapid and steady click of keys sounding throughout the compartment.

Kazuto hadn't seen the information broker since he had been stuck in Sword Art Online, and even though she seemed rather busy, Kazuto couldn't help but try catching up with her. "So, Argo," he said, "what have you been doing since the last time we met? I don't think I've ever seen you in ALO, and I'd imagine I would have heard something if you started up with your information broker activities again."

The mousy-haired girl paused her typing and looked up, a sly smile creeping onto her face. "Ahh, so yer finally awake then Kii-boy? I was wondering whether you were gonna sleep through the whole trip." She closed her laptop up and placed it into the bag at her feet. "So, you wanna know what I've been doin' with myself for the past two years, huh? It's not terribly exciting, mostly just work. Not all of us could be lucky enough to have still been in school during SAO, so that meant that I had to try to make up for missing almost two years of my life, on top of all the usual physical therapy." Her expression turned to a rather self-satisfied smug. "Fortunately, my time in Aincrad actually proved pretty useful for finding the job that I wanted. Turns out having singlehandedly operated my own newspaper for most of that time is pretty impressive when you're looking to get a job as a journalist. Of course, they didn't believe me at first, but after givin' em a sample of my writing, and finding some of my contacts to vouch for me, they eventually wised up."

"So, you're working as a reporter?" question Kazuto. He supposed that shouldn't be too surprising, given her unique skill set and personality, but she seemed rather…eccentric compared to what he would expect.

"I prefer 'investigative journalist'," she corrected, "but, yes, that's generally what I've been doing. It's almost perfect! Flexible hours, no sittin' around cooped up in some office somewhere, and I get to use my knack for ferretin' out stuff people don't want other to know. But, it's not completely perfect. At some point, I want to set up my own paper again. That's the best thing right there. That way, I get to choose what to investigate and what gets published, and no one can tell me that it's unprofessional to wear a hood and whiskers every once in a while. Speaking of whiskers…" she leaned forward towards Kazuto, "ya might want to check your face. It looks like yer sister and Rika had a bit of fun with a marker while you were asleep." Sitting back in her seat, she watched amusedly as Kazuto jolted at the information, trying to find a mirror.

Unfortunately, he couldn't find an actual mirror, so he ended up settling for the rather faint reflection given by the train's window. "Seriously, again?" he groaned, as he could make out the black swirls drawn onto his face. He looked over at Suguha, trying his best to glare at her. She seemed to catch his eye for the briefest second before focusing even more intently on her coloring. Turning to Rika, the older girl deliberately avoided looking over at him, pretending that nothing strange was going on at all.

He sighed and used his sleeve to rub at his face, trying to get as much of the ink off as he could. One of the nice benefits of wearing black clothing was that ink wouldn't make much of a noticeable stain, so at least there was that. "Did I manage to get all of it?" he asked Argo in a rather strained voice.

"Nope, there's still some that you missed," she informed him. He tried start wiping at it again, only for her to wag her finger at him. "Don't bother, just let big sis Argo take care of it for ya." Pulling out a cloth, she stood up and used it to scrub at the right side of his face, just a bit below his ear. Given that his ears immediately started heating up from embarrassment, he was sure that Argo noticed. But, he bit his tongue and didn't comment on it at all. After a few seconds longer than Kazuto was sure was necessary, Argo stepped back and sat back down, looking rather pleased with herself.

"Still treating me like a kid after all this time?" Kazuto noted, his words more of a statement than a question.

The Rat just smirked. "Of course! You're still just as hopeless as ever, so until you learn to look out for yourself, I get to keep coddlin' ya."

Kazuto frowned slightly. "You keep saying that, and calling yourself 'big sis.' Just how old are you Argo?"

The girl scowled at that question. "I know I said that I owed ya one Kii-boy," she said, irritation evident in her voice, "but you're treadin' a fine line there. You know it's rude to ask a girl how old she is. 'Sides, normally I'd be able to charge a pretty penny for that info." Resignedly, she let the dark expression slip from her face. "If ya must know, I'm 23 at the moment. Happy now?"

Kazuto just shrugged. "I don't understand what the big deal is. I mean, it's not like you're that much older than any of us."

"It's the principle of the thing," she shot back, "Next, you and everyone else will be wantin' my measurements too." Shooting a steely gaze at Kazuto, she cut off any thought of going down that line of questioning, "And you better not think that I'm givin' that information out for free." Relaxing again, she decided to go on the offensive this time. "Anyways, what about yourself, Kii-boy? I hear that you've been getting into plenty of trouble for the past few years. Something about a 'Death Gun' and then that memory loss fiasco with Ordinal Scale."

Kirito gave her a quizzical look. "How'd you hear about those?" he asked, "I didn't think either of those things were exactly public knowledge. Did you get one of the others to tell you?"

Argo shook her head. "I have my ways," she replied, "I've been keeping track of you and A-chan, and I'm quite good at finding information that I want. Besides, you weren't exactly subtle when you issued that public warning regarding Ordinal Scale ya know."

Well, so much for keeping a low profile. Then again, this was Argo he was talking about. "Yeah," he conceded, "I guess things have been rather crazy. I keep thinking things will settle down, but it seems like someone or something just doesn't want to let us forget about old Aincrad. One of the Laughing Coffin leaders decided to take up killing people again, so I got hired to investigate the deaths. That wasn't exactly a pleasant surprise. And, you seem to already know most of the story regarding Ordinal Scale. That's part of why this trip is going to be so nice. It'll be great to actually take it easy for once, without worrying about some crazy scheme."

"You really don't know how to not get involved with helping others out with their problems, do ya Kii-boy?" Argo said softly, "Like I told you before, you're too softhearted for your own good. It's going to cause you to get hurt some day." She paused for a moment, as if considering whether she should continue. Eventually, she chose to express her thoughts. "But, I hope you never change. It's one of the things I like about ya."

Kazuto didn't have much time to think about that particular comment, as Keiko suddenly jumped up out of her seat and bounced over by the window. "Look at that!" she exclaimed excitedly, "you can see the ocean!" At her words, everyone else turned to gaze out the window, and sure enough they could see the coastline as the train plodded past.

Asuna gave a small yawn as the excitement broke her out of her nap. "We're almost there," she said, wiping at her eyes, "we should all get our things gathered up so that we can get off and try to beat the crowd once we arrive."

* * *

The rest of the day seemed to slip by rather quickly. After disembarking from the train, the group spent most of the afternoon wandering through town, picking up any groceries that they thought they might need, only finally stopping when they realized that it would be impractical to try carrying anything else with them for the moment. With all of their luggage and purchased groceries in tow, they waited at the bus stop until transportation arrived to take them out near where the beach house was.

Keiko and Suguha spent the bus trip pressed up against the window, their eyes shining brightly as they both remained enthralled by the nearby ocean. The others just watched in amusement at their younger friends' uncontrollable enthusiasm. Of course, their behavior was also rather distracting to the other passengers on the bus, and people quickly started giving them rather odd looks.

"Alright you two," Rika said, pulling Keiko and Suguha away, "quit making a scene. You can geek out all you want once we actually get to the beach." Both girls shot Rika a glare, but after looking around and seeing the people staring at them, they quickly became more self-conscious and pulled away, controlling their excitement a little better.

Fortunately, they didn't have to restrain themselves for too long, as their stop was only about twenty minutes from town. Suguha and Keiko practically leapt out of the bus as soon as they'd snatched their bags, while the others remained more composed as they collected their belongings and exited the vehicle. The bus rolled away, and everyone in the group took a moment to stretch and take in the sight before them. The dipping sun cast a brilliant orange glow across the beach, bathing the sand and water with its warm, dying light, and the sea air, while filled with the rather peculiar scent of ocean brine and debris, still smelled cleaner and more pleasant than the smog that typically permeated the city.

"Alright you guys," Asuna chided after they'd spent several moments taking in the scene, "We've still got a little ways to walk. Once we make it to the house, _then_ you can enjoy the view a little more."

As difficult as it was to break themselves away from the sight before them, everybody agreed with their host and picked up their baggage, following Asuna as she led them along the road towards her family's beach house. Even from about half-a-mile away, it was already clearly visible, perched up on a cliff overlooking the ocean, with a set of paved stairs leading down away from it towards the beach below. With two stories and a visibly sprawling floor plan, the building was a fair bit larger and more luxurious than most of the group had expected for a beach house.

"Wait, _that's_ your beach house!?" Keiko exclaimed, "We get to stay there? This is going to be great!"

Asuna gave a bittersweet smile. "Yes. My parents bought it back when dad was selected as the new CEO of RECT. We used to come here pretty regularly, and it was always fun even though I preferred the mountains where my grandparents lived. But then my parents got tied up with work, and SAO happened, so we haven't been out here in quite a while. Usually we just rent the place out and pay to keep it maintained." Her smile brightened a bit. "But now we can make some new, happier memories out here! My dad actually seemed happy when I asked if we could use it this week."

Even though it actually took nearly fifteen minutes to actually make it to the structure, it certainly didn't feel that long. Everybody was hyped for the trip, and Keiko almost seemed to be walking on air as she nearly skipped along the path. Rika grinned maliciously. "I'm going to have so much fun teasing her for this later," she muttered under her breath. But of course, she couldn't really blame her friend for being excited. They were nearly there, and then this whole vacation could begin in earnest.

As they reached the house, Asuna moved up past the others, set her bags on the ground and fished a key out of her skirt pocket. She barely had time to unlock the door before nearly being stampeded over by the other five girls, all eager to see what the inside looked like. Kazuto just walked over next to his girlfriend and put his hand on her shoulder. "Thanks for letting us use this place Asuna," he said gratefully.

A bit of color rose to the girl's cheeks. She felt slightly guilty about having hidden the major reason for why she'd invited him and the others out here secret from Kazuto, and here he was thanking her for bringing him out here. "It wasn't a problem at all," she said, trying to keep any uncertainty out of her voice, "I hope that everyone will have a fun time this week."

Stepping inside, the couple were met with the sight of their friends staring in awe at the interior furnishings. There was an expansive kitchen, the perfect place to cook practically anything that they had the ingredients for, a large communal space with a pair of couches and recliners angled towards a massive television mounted on the wall, and a window stretching across an entire wall, giving a perfect view of the sea. Two hallways stretched off in different directions, and a stairwell leading up to the second floor.

"I guess I should welcome all of you," said Asuna. "We've got four bedrooms here, so hopefully people don't mind sharing a bit. If no one has any issues, I was thinking that Liz and Silica could share one of the ground floor rooms, and Leafa and Sinon could share the other one. Then Argo and I will take one of the upstairs rooms, and Kirito can use the master bedroom upstairs."

The girls all gave their assent to the proposal, but Kazuto felt obliged to object. "I don't need the largest room, especially when I'm not sharing with anyone else." Argo gave a knowing look to Asuna, but Kazuto completely missed it. "Why don't I take one of the other rooms, and you guys can decide who wants the larger space?"

"No, it's fine Kirito," Asuna assured him, "We really don't mind, and no one else has an issue with it."

"Besides," Suguha observed, "you tend to just toss your stuff everywhere, so you probably need more space to spread out anyways."

"Alright," he reluctantly relented, "If everyone is really okay with it, then I guess it's fine."

"Well, then it's settled," Asuna cheerfully announced, "by the way, each room has its own bathroom too, so there shouldn't be any trouble in that area." She gave a satisfied sigh, "I'm really looking forward to a nice relaxing bath after all that traveling today."

Argo grinned impishly. "That so? Ya'd better make sure you lock it up this time so that I don't walk in on ya bathin' again! Though, I wouldn't mind of course."

The girls' eyes all snapped to either Argo or Asuna. This was something they hadn't heard about before. Asuna's face turned beet red while Kazuto's face blanched as he recalled that particular memory. For her part, Argo found the entire situation hysterical and couldn't keep herself from laughing. "Nyahaha, so, neither of you ever talked about that story before, huh? I guess it'll be a fun one to tell later!"

Asuna glared daggers at Argo for a moment, then at Kazuto. The boy groaned internally. It wasn't his fault! Okay, maybe it had been slightly his fault, but surely she should be angrier with Argo than with him!

"Anyways," Asuna said, trying to shrug off the moment and distract everyone from Argo's comment, "Why don't you all go get settled in, and then maybe we can get something going for dinner!" That seemed to motivate everyone, so, after hauling all of their purchased groceries into the kitchen, the group broke, with everyone heading to their assigned rooms.

Kazuto walked up the staircase to check out the master bedroom, where he supposed he would be saying. Opening the door, he was greeted with something along the lines of what he'd expected. The room was plenty large, even larger than his bedroom back home, with a window and a sliding door leading out to a balcony overlooking the ocean below. A television sat on an entertainment stand, and a large, king size bed dominated much of the room. Exploring the room a bit more, he found a small walk-in closet, and a rather luxurious bathroom complete with what appeared to be a whirlpool hot tub.

After his brief inspection, Kazuto dumped his bags on the floor next to the bed, then plopped down and laid back for a moment. "I always forget just how wealthy Asuna's family is," he said to himself, "There's no way that I'd ever be able to afford a place like this." Still, even though it felt rather strange to be residing in such luxury for the remainder of the trip, he couldn't deny that it was pretty comfortable. Plus, it seemed like everyone else was already having a good time.

Reaching a hand into his pocket, Kazuto pulled out the small black box that he'd kept there. He'd been wondering when the right time was to pop the question, and even though he'd briefly considered waiting until near the end of the trip, it made more sense to just get it over with. That way, he wouldn't be worrying about finding the perfect moment for the rest of their vacation, and there was less of a chance that Asuna would accidentally discover the ring before he'd had the chance to propose. Plus, after Argo managed to get Asuna irritated with him again, this seemed like the perfect way to make it up to her. After all, she wouldn't say no just because of something like that. Right?

With his mind made up, Kazuto pulled himself up out of the bed and slipped the box back into his pocket before heading down the hallway towards the other upstairs room. When he approached, he found that the door was closed, causing him to hesitate for a moment before knocking. A moment later, the door opened, revealing Argo.

"Hey there Kii-boy," she greeted, "I suppose you're wanting A-chan though, right?"

"I can come back later if she's busy," Kazuto said.

"Nah, she's just still tryin' to get everything unpacked," the Rat explained.

As if on cue, Asuna walked up to the door. "Oh, Kirito!" she said in surprise, "I thought that you'd still be settling in. I know it's taken me a bit to unpack all my things."

"Well, I really didn't actually unpack anything," Kazuto replied, "I just put my bags in the room. I figured that I could actually unpack later."

Asuna brought her hand to her face in exasperation, then gave a sigh. "I guess I'm not really that surprised. Just make sure you get everything taken care of later, alright?"

"Sure!" assured Kazuto, "But, I was just wondering if you wanted to go down to the beach for a little while there's still light and the others are still unpacking."

Her face brightened. "That sounds great!" she replied.

* * *

A couple of minutes later found the two on the beach, standing basked in the soft orange glow of the setting sun. Nothing needed to be said between them for several minutes as they simply enjoyed each other's company and the view before them.

"I'm really glad that we all decided to come out here," Asuna commented softly, resting her head on Kazuto's shoulder, "It's so much quieter out here. And this view is beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Kazuto noted, though he looked at Asuna as he made the observation rather than at the sunset. "It reminds me of when we watched old Aincrad crumble together. I was really afraid that it was the end, that we would never see each other again. But, if that sunset was an ending for us, then maybe this one can be a new beginning." Asuna gave him a rather confused look, and Kazuto cursed himself for saying something so lame. But, he'd already committed, so it was too late to back out now.

Removing the box from his pocket, he pulled away from Asuna and turned to face her directly. "I know we've considered ourselves married ever since SAO, but we haven't been able to have it recognized here. And, I never really asked you properly last time, so…" he opened the box, revealing the ring sparkling inside, and offered it to her. "Will you marry me, again?"

Asuna's eyes widened for a moment, then the smile that Kazuto had only ever seen once before, the one that he'd hoped he'd see at least one more time in his life, etched itself onto her face. "Oh Kirito," she said softly, "You know what my answer is going to be. I said yes back then, and my answer hasn't changed. Of course I'll marry you!" Her beaming smile seemed to glow more brilliantly than the sunset in the distance. "This is going to be great! It'll be so wonderful to have everyone actually recognize our marriage now!"

The knot of nervousness and tension that had been building inside Kazuto throughout the days leading up to this suddenly vanished and he gave a goofy, relieved smile. He shouldn't have worried so much. He knew exactly how Asuna felt, and it was silly of him to even worry that she might turn him down. However, she spoke again, shaking him out of his rather blissful relief. "I have one condition though," she said, her voice taking on a serious tone.

"What's that?" Kazuto questioned, nervous over what exactly she could want from him.

"I think that _they_ might want to help answer that," she replied, pointing over his shoulder. He turned, and saw the others, Rika, Keiko, Suguha, Shino, and Argo, all watching with varying expressions of surprise, awe, and amusement.

"Seriously?" Kazuto asked, "You guys were here this whole time?" So much for trying to have a private, intimate moment, but he really shouldn't have been surprised that the other girls would snoop on him and Asuna. He shook his head. "I still don't understand what it is that you're wanting though, Asuna," he said. Turning to face the other five girls, he continued, "What is it that you're supposed to explain?"

Suguha shuffled her feet, her unease apparent. "Well, Kazuto, you see…"

"We're all in love with you, Kii-boy!" Argo said without any hesitation whatsoever.

Kazuto blinked, his brain not really processing the words for a moment. Then he felt his jaw drop slightly as comprehension washed over him. "Wait," he said in shellshocked voice, " _All_ of you? You're all…in love with…me?" He'd known that Suguha and Rika had both had feelings for him at one time, but he'd thought that they'd just moved on. But Keiko, Shino, and even Argo as well? When the hell had he suddenly developed a harem?

"Kazuto," Keiko said, her eyes not quite able to meet his, "We all…somehow we all fell for you. You've always been there to help all of us, like when you went with me to save Pina."

"Yeah, ya Doofus," Rika broke in, a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Seriously, you freaking throw yourself into all kinds of trouble to help every girl you see, then you're surprised that they fell for you? God, it's been such a pain trying to keep it hidden from you two for this long. I can't believe that you never picked up on it this whole time, even if we were trying to keep it a secret. I mean, you figure a person can only be so dense, you know?"

"You were the first person who really treated me like a normal person, even after you found out about my past," Shino explained with her arms crossed across her chest, "And you've never tried to use me or take advantage of me or anyone else. You might be a dork and really annoying sometimes, but I still love you even when you piss me off."

"And don't forget about me," Argo butted in, "I fell for ya first you know. Then ya went off and roped in poor A-chan, along with everyone else." She leaned towards him with her usual mischievous smile, "So, you'd better take responsibility for all our feelin's!"

Kazuto struggled to keep himself from stumbling at this shocking turn of events. Unable to muster an immediate reply to the other girls, he just turned to Asuna. "You know about all of this? Then, what exactly are you wanting? Did you just need me to hear it and officially turn everyone else down?"

She shook her head. "No, that's not it. I didn't actually know how everyone felt until about a week ago. But, I just want everyone to be happy. I can't stand the thought of letting my friends suffer just for my own happiness." Asuna stared Kazuto dead in the eyes. "Kirito, I'll marry you again, but I want you to love Liz, Leafa, Silica, Sinon, and Argo just like you love me. That's part of why we planned this trip. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about it earlier, but we just needed to get this out in the open." She took a breath, trying to force out her next words. "Kirito, we all love you so much, and we want you to…to…"

"What she's trying to say is that we all want you to knock us up!" Rika shamelessly interjected, tired of waiting for her friend to actually spit the words out.

All of a sudden, Kazuto felt extremely lightheaded. This couldn't be real. This couldn't possibly be real, right? Obviously, he must have misheard.

"Kazuto," Suguha said, speaking up again, "We know this seems really crazy, but this is what we want, to really show that you love us."

His mouth gaped for a moment, as the situation rendered Kazuto completely speechless. "You all… want to… to get pregnant?" he asked in stunned disbelief, "And you're all okay with that? What about your families? What would they think!?"

"That's one of the perks of livin' on my own," Argo said confidently, "I can pretty much make my own decisions without worryin' what someone else thinks."

Rika and Shino both nodded in agreement at that statement. "I just moved out on my own, so I'm in the same boat," Rika observed.

"I've been living on my own for a while too," Shino added, "and my family already keeps me at arm's length. I don't think my grandparents would be happy, exactly, but I think they'd eventually understand."

"My parents haven't ever really been around much anyways," Keiko said, though she still looked rather nervous and embarrassed, "So I don't think they'd really care all that much either."

Kazuto turned to Suguha. Maybe he could at least reason with her. "Come on Sugu," he pleaded, "You can't possibly think that mom and dad would be okay with this, do you?"

She shook her head. "I know they wouldn't be pleased about it," she admitted, "and I know that it would mean I'd have to give up kendo for a little while. But I don't think that they'd disown me, and as much as I love kendo, this is something I want even more."

That left only one person. "Asuna," Kazuto said, trying to reason with his girlfriend, "We both know how strict your mom is. She'd have a fit if you wound up pregnant! I mean, we haven't even told her about Yui yet, because we didn't know how she'd react."

She just smiled at him. "Kirito, I don't think she'd have a problem if we were married. And she's already told me that her main concern is that I go to school and find a good career. As long as I do that, she shouldn't mind too much. And we don't have to tell her about any of the rest of this."

"What if…what if I say no?" Kazuto said weakly, seeing that his previous arguments had fallen flat, "What if I don't want this?"

"We're not going to force you," Asuna said, sadness evident in her voice, "but is that really what you want? We know that we're being selfish, but this is something we've all discussed and it's what we want. You've always done everything you could to make all of us happy, and I think that this would make you happy for once as well. I'll still marry you regardless, but I'm asking you to agree to this."

"Besides," Rika said, "What kind of man wouldn't want to say yes to this? You've got six smokin' hot girls telling you that they want your children. How can you say no to that?"

Much as he didn't want to admit it, Kazuto had to concede that Rika was right. Asuna, Rika, Shino, Keiko, Suguha, Argo, they were all incredibly beautiful. Of course, he was rather scared by the whole situation. For so long, he'd been unable to understand exactly how much Asuna had loved him, a person who seemed to constantly screw up at every turn and cause pain for those around him. And as for kids…he loved Yui of course, but this would be something completely different. But, as he looked into each of their eyes, he could see their commitment, how serious they were about this, and how much they truly wanted him to say yes. In the end, he couldn't possibly bring himself to tell them no.

"Alright," he conceded, "I'll do it. I honestly don't know why you guys feel this way, or what I did to deserve all of you, but I'll do whatever I can to make you happy."

* * *

Compared to that rather tense situation, the rest of the evening passed relatively uneventfully. After quickly throwing together something to eat, the girls had sent Kazuto packing to his room for the night. _Here's what we're going to do_ , they'd said to him, _we'll figure out who gets to be with you first. We'll spend most of each day like we normally would, but the evening is for you and one of us to spend however the two of you want. But for now, you should get some sleep, since you didn't get enough last night, and you'll need rest for the week ahead._

Having banished Kazuto to his room, the six girls now sat in a circle in the living room. The most difficult part was over, but now came the next step. Argo whipped out a brown paper sack that clinked audibly as its contents shifted around. "So's everyone okay with decidin' this at random?" she asked for confirmation, "I figured this'd be the easiest and fairest method, but if anyone has a problem, go ahead and speak up."

Asuna fiddled with her hands, Keiko squirmed around, and Suguha rubbed her neck, all of them exhibiting signs of nervousness. But, no one objected; Rika just sported a rather grim look on her face, while Shino seemed unconcerned about the whole thing.

"Alright then," Argo said, offering the bag to the other girls, "then let's go ahead and get this over with." One by one, each girl reached into the bag and withdrew one of the small tiles inside. Argo had marked them with red numbers, one through six, to have a random and fair system for determining which day each of them would get to spend with Kazuto.

Most of the girls seemed to take their numbers in stride, but Keiko's face turned crimson as she looked at her number, while Asuna let out a disbelieving "What!?" as she saw hers. Since she'd provided the drawing, Argo picked last and drew out the final tile: 3. Everyone else revealed their numbers as well: Keiko's reaction resulted from the number 1 scribbled onto her tile, while Suguha's showed 2, Rika's showed 4, Shino's tile was 5, and Asuna ended up stuck with the last tile.

"Don't feel too bad, Asuna," Rika assured her friend, "After all, being last means you'll get to leave the lasting impression on Kirito." Turning to Keiko, Rika continued, "As for you, it looks like you'll get to set the tone for the trip, Keiko. Hope you're ready for tomorrow!"

Asuna sighed in resignation, while Keiko just scrunched up further on the floor. "Alrighty then," Argo concluded, standing back up, "it looks like everything's decided. Now, I think it's time to wrap things up for the night. Tomorrow's gonna be a big day, and it's gonna be a long week. So rest up while ya can! We're all gonna need it."

* * *

 **Alright, I sometimes felt like this chapter was never going to wrap up, but I like ending it here. Lemons will be coming starting next chapter! In the meantime, I decided that it would be nice to include a kind of debriefing author's note here at the end to give some insight into my writing.**

 **First, since we don't have a ton of information on some of the characters (Rika, Argo, Keiko), I'm operating under a sort of alternate character interpretation system, based on what we know. I've dropped a few hints about each of them, but I'll almost certainly dive more into those as the story goes on.**

 **The next big thing that several people seemed unsure about was the exact timeline and source material behind this. This story tentatively takes place several months after _Ordinal Scale_ , and is completely ignoring _Alicization_ , as it doesn't really fit with the story and I haven't had a chance to read the light novels. This is assuming the main novel continuity (for the most part) with material being drawn from Progressive as well. If there are any anime original bits, I'm including those as well, provided that they don't outright contradict the novels. And sorry, but the video game exclusive characters won't be making appearances here.**

 **The beach trip and beach house itself were inspired almost completely by the Beach House Arc from _Toradora!_ If you guys haven't checked it out and are a fan of romance/romcoms, I can't recommend that series enough. Two of the voice actors from SAO's English dub (Christine Marie Cabanos and Cassandra Lee Morris, who voice Silica and Suguha respectively) also voice characters from _Toradora!_ In fact, I actually had Keiko give an almost word-for-word quote that her voice actor gives when their group arrives at the beach house in _Toradora_! as something of an homage.**

 **The book Shino is reading is actually the Japanese title of _The Eye of the World_ , (though for whatever reason the title was changed to mean something else in Japanese), the first book in _The Wheel of Time_ series. It's a personal favorite of mine, and given Shino's love of fantasy literature, I figured it was more than appropriate to have her reading it.**

 **Kazuto and Asuna's conversation as they watched the sunset was drawn largely from a similar scene in _Mass_ _Effect 3_ , where two characters (Shepard and Tali, if anyone knows anything about that franchise) are watching the sun set on Tali's newly reclaimed home world. I thought the whole sequence was quite adorable, and it fit in perfectly here.**

 **Trying to figure out what Argo's real name should be was a pain, but I'm reasonably satisfied with what I settled on. That being said, don't expect to hear it much. It makes sense that she prefers her in game handle, at least around Kirito and the others.**

 **I had originally had Suguha working on a crossword puzzle on the train, but after thinking about it for a while, I decided that didn't really jive with her personality. Given the recent explosion in coloring books oriented towards teens and adults, it seems reasonable that that's what she would be doing instead.**

 **It's always been curious to me that there wasn't any substantial mention of any monetary damages that any of the SAO players received from their ordeal. Argus apparently went out of business due to the lawsuits, which heavily implies that they ended up owing both compensatory and punitive damages, but Kawahara doesn't really mention anything further. It's not all that important here either, but I decided to mention a little something about it here just to establish that the survivors (and the families of the deceased) actually were compensated for their ordeal.**

 **I don't know if the direction that this story will be taking was clear from the first chapter, but I tried to lay the foundation with the girls' conversation near the end. This might not be everyone's thing, but this is my story, so I get to put in the particular fetish that I wanted to see. Hopefully that's not a deal breaker for anybody.**

 **Several reviewers seemed rather hesitant or displeased about Silica/Keiko and any lemons involving her. I hope that it's not too terrible that she's going to have the first lemon here. Not only are there just so few actual stories involving her (much less lemons with her), but it also makes some thematic sense to have her up first. If it's still not your thing, I understand, but I'm hoping that you'll bear with me regardless.**

 **One other thing I've been unsure about is how I'm going to start wrapping this up. It's a long way off still, but I'd love to hear peoples' input so that I can start figuring out where to take this. Would people prefer a chapter/scene with everyone together as the trip comes to a close, or more of just a sweet, sappy, calming down after everything that will be coming before?**

 **Lastly, I just wanted to thank everyone again for giving this story a chance. I have final exams coming up in the next few weeks, so I won't be touching this story again until those are done. With any luck, I'll be able to churn the next chapter out before the new year, but I can't make any promises. Until then, I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and (if I don't update before then) a Merry Christmas!**


	3. Chapter 3: Overlooked No More

**To paraphrase a famous quotation "Rumors of this story's death have been greatly exaggerated."**

 **Hey guys! As you may have noticed, this is not being uploaded before Christmas of 2018, or even before the beginning of 2019. Honestly, I'd originally intended to have it ready as a Christmas gift to you all, but I quickly realized that that was just not going to happen. But, I finally managed to get around to finishing this, and I hope that it at least somewhat makes up for the undue delay. Anyways, once again I'd like to thank everyone who's favorited, followed, or, especially, reviewed this story. You all have no idea how valuable reviews are to authors and so I'm grateful for everyone who's willing to take a moment to give me some feedback.**

 **Anyways, as promised, this chapter will start off the series of lemons for this story. I also have an announcement that I'll include in my debriefing at the bottom. I hope you all enjoy, and please don't forget to follow, favorite, and review!**

 **Chapter 3: Overlooked No More**

Kazuto's dreams that night were haunted by old ghosts, making his sleep both shallow and restless. Everything started out pleasantly enough: he found himself in his log cabin on Floor 22, sitting in his familiar armchair and smiling as he listened to Asuna and the others speaking animatedly about some unfamiliar topic. This was what he'd always wanted, just to see the people most important to him happy, and himself being there with them.

Then the dream suddenly shifted. Asuna and the others seemed to vanish and the cabin darkened as it warped into a rough stone chamber, dimly lit by a menacing red light. The room was familiar. It did not bring back pleasant memories.

"Kirito." A soft voice shattered the silence, seemingly reverberating in his ears despite how quiet it actually was. Spinning around, he saw a black-haired girl with sad, lonely eyes staring at him. As their gazes met, Kazuto felt like her stare pierced through to his very soul. His blood seemed to freeze as he recognized the girl: Sachi.

"Have you forgotten about me so quickly?" she asked, her voice remaining as soft as ever, "Have you forgotten about the promise you made to me? You promised me that I would survive, that I wasn't going to die." She started walking towards him. "You lied to me Kirito. You let me die. You just watched helplessly as I was mercilessly cut down in front of you."

Kazuto opened his mouth to protest, but no words came out. Shaking his head, he tried desperately to break free from the dream. This couldn't be Sachi. She would never have said anything like this, she would never have blamed him; her final message to him was to not blame himself for her death. And yet, here she was, standing before him and reminding him that he had been responsible for killing her. He tried to back away, but the gap between him and Sachi only continued to shrink.

"And it wasn't just me you killed," Sachi continued, the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats appearing beside her, facing Kazuto as if in accusation, "you killed all of us." A bitter, cruel smile engraved itself onto her face. "You're a horrible person. Did you think that you could protect us, that you were a hero who could save everyone? You can't save anyone; you couldn't protect me, and you can't protect them either."

Sachi pointed past Kazuto, and he unwillingly turned to see look where she directed, helpless to stop himself, as if he was unable to control his own body. He felt like someone had rammed a knife into his chest as he saw a hooded, shadowy figure skulking around six bodies littering the floor: Asuna, Suguha, Rika, Keiko, Shino, and Argo. Kazuto's eyes widened as he saw dark pools growing around each of the girls, and he felt like gagging and throwing up from the heavy metallic scent in the air, the scent of blood. The hooded figure seemed to notice Kazuto and looked up at him, his eyes oozing malevolent intent even with the mask covering his facial expression. Kazuto recognized him immediately: Johnny Black.

"There you are, black swordsman," the Laughing Coffin member said, the creepily cheerful sadism in his tone only enhanced by how high pitched his voice was, "I've been looking for you. I just wanted a chance to show you my handiwork." He looked over at the girls' bodies. "How tragic for such pretty young things to end up like this. But then again, they knew the risks when they stayed close to you. Xaxa told you this wasn't over. He warned you that I'd find you, and anyone close to you is fair game as well." He cackled maniacally, and Kazuto slammed his eyes shut, praying that the nightmare would end.

"You should know by now that you only bring pain to everyone close to you." Kazuto looked once again and saw that Sachi had replaced Johnny Black. "All you do is cause suffering. You don't deserve to be happy after all you've done, after all you've allowed to happen." Her mace appeared in her hand and she raised it up, preparing to swing. "Come, Kirito. Come join us in death." The weapon came crashing down.

* * *

Kazuto bolted awake, covered in cold sweat. His heart raced as the memories of the nightmare burned fresh in his mind and his breath came in frantic heaves. Sitting up, he tried to calm himself down, to banish the memory of the dream from his thoughts. Gradually, his breathing slowed as he managed to settle down, though the haunting words and images from his nightmare continued to plague him.

 _It was only a dream_ he told himself, attempting to dismiss the newly reawakened fears and doubts in his heart. Despite knowing that Asuna and the others were still fine, he couldn't shake the images of their broken forms lying on the ground before him. Despite whatever comforting words he'd try to tell himself, it was undeniably true that he seemed to have a habit of getting himself and those around him into danger. And, he'd made dangerous enemies, enemies who would not hesitate to hurt those closest to him. How could he still agree to the girls' request knowing that he'd be putting them in even more danger than they might already be.

His mouth felt dry. With an inaudible groan, Kazuto rolled out of bed and walked over to the door, opening it and slowly making his way down the house's stairwell as quietly as he could. Once he'd finally made it to the ground floor, he slipped into the kitchen, which was bathed in soft moonlight shining in through the massive window overlooking the beach. Kazuto pulled a glass out from one of the cabinets and filled it from the refrigerator's water dispenser. The water felt cool and soothing as he sipped it down, trying to focus solely on that rather than on his lingering fears.

"Trouble sleeping?"

A hushed voice broke the silence in the room, causing Kazuto to jolt momentarily in surprise. Looking over, he saw Shino standing near the threshold of the kitchen, dressed in beige pajamas that almost seemed radiant in the moonlight, looking at him, her eyes filled with equal parts concern and empathy.

"Oh, Shino!" Kazuto exclaimed, trying to keep his voice low so as to not wake anyone else, "Sorry if I accidentally woke you up. I just wanted to come down and get something to drink, no big deal."

Shino sighed exasperatedly. "You're a terrible liar Kazuto, you know that? Even with those black clothes I can tell you've been sweating, and your face is still really pale."

"Can't pull one over on you, huh?" Kazuto said in defeat.

"As someone speaking from experience?" Shino remarked rhetorically, "No. Was it… about the three players that you killed?"

Kazuto shook his head. "No, it was…something else."

"Why don't we sit down and you can tell me about it then," Shino said, indicating towards the dining room. Seeing Kazuto hesitate, she gave a slight scowl. "Come on Kazuto. You've always told me to trust you and to share with you or someone else whenever there's something going on. You can't deal with everything by yourself, and you shouldn't keep things bottled up."

Kazuto knew she was right. Not only should he have learned through the past few years that there were some things that he couldn't tackle by himself, but it was hypocritical for him to have worked so hard to convince Shino to share her problems and then refuse to do the same himself. But, even after having become accustomed to having friends to spend time with, his old habits as a loner, a social pariah who kept to himself and remained distant from other people, were hard to break. "Alright," he conceded, "I'll tell you. Just…bear with me. I've only ever told Asuna and Klein about it. It's still…painful."

Shino's eyes softened and she gave an understanding nod before walking out of the kitchen and into the adjacent dining room. Kazuto followed after her, taking a seat across the table from the girl. To his relief, she didn't pressure him to start talking right away, and seemed content to allow him to gather his thoughts for a moment before beginning.

"In SAO, I was a loner, one of the few people known for their solo player status," he began, "Actually, I was kind of a loner before SAO. I met Asuna early on and we stuck together for a while, but eventually we fell out hard." Shino's eyebrow raised a bit at that, but didn't pursue the matter, "Anyways, I went back to playing solo for a while until I ended up rescuing a small group of players inside one of the dungeons. It wasn't something I'd planned, but it looked like they might not be able to make it out if they drew the attention of more monsters, so I wanted to make sure they got out safely. They ended up inviting me for a drink as thanks and invited me to join their guild, the Moonlit Black Cats."

"In SAO, I was known as a…beater, that is, a beta tester who'd basically cheated by using my knowledge of the game for my own advantage rather than sharing it with the other players. I didn't tell the Black Cats what my true level was, and actually pretended to be around the same level as them because I didn't want to look like I was showing off or to let them know that I was a beater. It was just… they looked like they were having so much fun together, like they were actually enjoying playing SAO even though it was a death game. And I…I wanted to experience some of that happiness for myself. I accepted their offer and joined their guild."

"There was one of them in particular, a girl named Sachi." Shino's eyes narrowed for the slightest moment at that information, though she quickly resumed her more passive expression. For his part, Kazuto didn't even notice, as engrossed as he was in his troubling memories. "She was so afraid of dying in Aincrad. The leader of the Black Cats, Keita, wanted her to work on being a frontline fighter, and she couldn't handle it. One night, she ran away, and none of the others could find her. I managed to track her to one of the sewers in town. She…she was so afraid that she couldn't sleep and all she wanted to do was run away."

Shino noticed Kazuto tense up as he clenched his fists under the table. "I told her…I promised her that she wasn't going to die, that she was going to survive and make it out of SAO alive. I knew it was a horrible lie, a cruel falsehood, but even so I said it. And she believed it."

Unable to even meet Shino's eyes, Kazuto's gaze drifted down the table as he continued. "One day, the Black Cats had made enough money that they could actually afford to buy their own house to use as a home base. Keita went off to look for one that was suitable, and the others wanted to go explore one of the dungeons while he was gone, to earn some extra money for furnishings. I knew the floor we were looting was filled with dangerous traps, but I couldn't tell them how I knew it. The Black Cat's thief opened a chest on the floor and triggered a set of traps that prevented us from teleporting out. Sachi…everyone… I killed all of them. They died right before my eyes, and I couldn't do a thing about it, all because I was too selfish to be honest with them. And then when I returned and told Keita what had happened, he blamed me as well, telling me that I had no business being a part of their guild before he leapt off the ramparts of Aincrad and killed himself."

Kazuto's words started to break up as he continued, and Shino could tell he was choking back sobs near the end. After letting Kazuto sit for a few moments, she asked, "Is that what you dreamed about? Your guild dying?"

Kazuto looked back up at her and blinked some lingering tears out of his eyes before shaking his head. "No, not exactly. I…I dreamt of Sachi. She was…accusing me, telling me that I'd lied to her, that I'd forgotten my promise and that I didn't deserve to be happy. And it wasn't just her." He swallowed, his throat feeling a bit dry again. "You remember Xaxa, don't you Shino? Death Gun?"

She frowned a bit at that, the name obviously brining back some unpleasant emotions. "Yeah," she said, "What about him? Last I heard he's still rotting in jail, isn't he?"

Kazuto nodded. "Yes, he's in jail, but his other partner is still missing. His name's Johnny Black, and he was one of the three leaders of Laughing Coffin in SAO. In my dream, he was there and he'd…he'd killed you. All of you. Just to make me suffer." Kazuto closed his eyes. "I know that you all said that you love me, that you want to be with me, but I'm afraid that you'll all be in danger. I can't stand letting any of being hurt just because you're important to me."

"Kazuto, look at me." Shino's authoritative tone compelled him to look up from the table, where he could see a serious expression on his friend's face. "I know that you like to play the hero, and want to protect everyone, but that's too much for any one person to handle. Do you really believe that the Black Cats would have stayed away from the higher floors if you hadn't been there? You said that you had to rescue them when you met for the first time, so it sounds like they were always taking excessive risks. They made their decisions, and it's not your fault that they died."

Kazuto's face hardened for a moment; Shino's words were similar to those of Klein, who'd essentially dismissed the fate of the Black Cats as being due to their own stupidity and incompetence. And yet, Shino's assessment lacked the same condescension. Kazuto hadn't actually considered the possibility that the Black Cats might have died weeks earlier than they had, during any one of the raids that they'd gone on, heedless of the usual ten level margin of safety that most other players abided by. And it wasn't as though he'd suggested exploring the labyrinth where they had met their end. That had been Tetsuo's idea.

"Even so…" he managed to whisper out, "even so, I made it my duty to protect them. Sachi…all of them. I chose to watch after them, and I failed! In the end, Keita even blamed me for what happened."

"I'm sure that he didn't mean it," Shino replied softly, "he was just in shock at the news, and lashed out at the one person he could, the one who had told him what had happened."

"But…how can you know that for sure?" Kazuto questioned.

Shino gave a small smile. "Do you remember what I said when were together in that cave during the BoB? After we were chased by Death Gun, and I broke down? I said that I hated you, that I hated your guts and wanted you to leave me alone. Do you think I really meant that?"

Kazuto shook his head. "No. I knew that something was bothering you, and that you didn't mean what you were saying. You just needed to let it out of your system."

"That's right," Shino confirmed, "So why would it have been any different with Keita? He'd just found out that all of his friends had been killed, and wasn't thinking clearly. Do you think Sachi would have blamed you? From how you've described her, I can't imagine she would have held it against you."

Somewhere, at the back of Kazuto's mind, he could almost hear the humming of a certain popular Christmas tune as he recalled Sachi's final message to him. She'd told him that he shouldn't blame himself for her death, and that he should keep on living. She wouldn't have wanted him to remain plagued by guilt for her death, or the deaths of the other members of the Moonlit Black Cats. It was irrational to continue bearing that burden, and almost insulting to Sachi's memory as he ignored her final wish for him. Yet, he couldn't let it go.

"You're right, of course," he admitted, "Sachi wanted me to move on, and not blame myself because she died. It's just…" he trailed off for a moment, struggling to express his real concern. "I can't let it happen again. I can't let you, or Asuna, or anyone else die. I'm afraid that I'm not strong enough, that if something comes along again that I can't protect you all. I can't afford to lose you!"

"No one can live forever, Kazuto," Shino said gently, "You and I both know how fragile life can be, given our experiences. But there's no use worrying about it, and denying yourself happiness just because you don't want to potentially put us in danger is both stupid and arrogant. Do you think any of us would want to see you get hurt? If something does happen, we'd rather be by your side, fighting with you like we have before, rather than being trapped and watching you be hurt or killed from the sidelines."

Shino's words struck a chord inside Kazuto. He recalled another time when he wanted nothing more than to protect someone he loved, how he'd accepted Heathcliff's challenge and made him promise to prevent Asuna from killing herself if he died. All he'd been trying to do was to keep his beloved safe, but then she had somehow overcome the system's paralysis and leapt in front of the strike meant for him, apparently sacrificing herself in the process. But wouldn't he have done the same thing if their roles had been reversed? Would he stand by and watch if any of his friends risked their lives?

How could he not have seen it before now. He should have learned from his experiences, that it was just pride, sheer arrogance, to think that his life was any less important to the people around him than theirs were to him. And any thoughts of distancing himself from Asuna, Shino, Suguha, or any of his other friends in order to protect them was doing nothing more than hurting them instead. He needed to let go of the past, along with its ghosts of failures and specters of his perceived inadequacy, and look towards the future instead: a future with Asuna, Shino, Suguha, Keiko, Rika, and Argo by his side.

"Thanks Shino," he said gratefully, looking directly into her eyes for the first time that night, "I…guess I needed that."

"It's no problem," she assured him, "I'm just glad that you finally decided to open up. I know that I've felt a lot better once I actually told someone about my feelings, and you've always been there to listen to me. Consider it as repaying the favor."

"You know, you're actually really good at this," he observed, "Have you been doing this for anyone else?"

Shino blushed, though it wasn't easily visible in the dimly lit room. "I haven't actually helped anyone else, but…I've been doing a bit of research on therapy and counseling. I'm actually considering joining the police as a designated counselor, so I can help out people like you and me. I don't want anyone to feel as isolated and alone as I did." She quietly cleared her throat. "Anyways, you should probably try getting back to sleep. Tomorrow's going to be busy, considering it's our first full day here. Just… promise me you'll let me, or at least one of the others, know if you're having nightmares again, okay?"

"Alright," Kazuto agreed. It still wasn't easy to actually express what was on his mind, but maybe that would get better in time. After all, he wasn't alone anymore, and he had to remember that. As Shino got up and headed back to her and Suguha's room, Kazuto downed the last of his water. He hadn't exactly planned on dredging up those old memories, much less sharing them with anyone else, but he felt relieved that he had. Making his way back up the stairs to his room, he crawled back into bed and stared at the ceiling for a moment. _I promise you Sachi_ , he thought, _I promise that I'll stop living with this guilt weighing me down, and start living the life you wanted me to lead_. _And…thank you_. With that, he closed his eyes, and gradually let sleep take him once more.

No more nightmares plagued Kazuto that night.

* * *

The next morning, the delicious aroma wafting up from the kitchen woke Kazuto from his slumber. Gradually opening his eyes, he pulled himself up and stretched for a moment to work off his lingering sleepiness. Suddenly, his stomach gave a growl, prompting him to leap out of his night clothes and throw on a new set of clothing before hurrying down the stairs.

As he reached the kitchen, he saw Asuna, Keiko, Suguha, and Shino all seated at the table, munching through a large heap of fried eggs, a platter of thick-cut toast, and a stack of sliced ham. It looked as though Asuna had pulled out all the stops in putting together a hearty Western Style breakfast.

The girls noticed his arrival. "Good morning Kirito!" Asuna said warmly, "we wanted to let you sleep a bit longer, but I made sure to fix plenty of food! Help yourself to whatever you want."

"Thanks!" Kirito replied, "It looks great!" Pulling up a chair, he eagerly began piling food onto his plate, always happy to partake in Asuna's cooking.

"So, Kazuto," Shino said as she amusedly watched the typically reserved boy enthusiastically dig into his food, "How did you sleep last night? Was it better?"

Kazuto paused for a moment and gave a smile to Shino. "Yeah, I did. Thanks for that talk last night Shino. I really needed that."

Asuna, Suguha, and Keiko shot questioning looks at Shino, who gave a slight shrug and mouthed _later_. Kazuto had already returned his attention to the food in front of him and missed the entire nonverbal exchange.

It only took about five minutes for Kazuto to finish scarfing down as much food as he cared to eat. Finished, he pushed his plate forward a bit and leaned back in his chair, giving a contented sigh of satisfaction. It had been quite a while since he'd had such a calm and uneventful morning. He didn't have anything he had to worry about, he could feel comfortable and relaxed, it wasn't excessively noisy…

He opened his eyes at that thought. It was unusually quiet and subdued, which alerted him to the absence of the two more vocal girls. "Where are Rika and Argo?" he asked, now a bit surprised at their absence.

"Oh, they got up early and went into town together," Asuna explained, "They said that they needed to go pick something up, but they should be back fairly soon. I was a little bit surprised. Argo never really came across as an early riser."

"Yeah, as far as I know, Rika usually tends to sleep in too," Keiko added, "But, she said that she'd gotten a great idea and wanted to surprise us. She wouldn't tell me anything more than that though."

 _I wonder what they have planned,_ Kazuto thought. Putting those two together seemed like a recipe for an…interesting time, though he wasn't sure if he should be eager or terrified to see what they had in store. Probably a little of both.

"Anyways," Asuna said, interrupting Kazuto's thoughts, "I figured that since the weather is so nice, and this is our first full day here, we could all spend the day enjoying the ocean and the beach! How does that sound to everyone?"

"Alright! That sounds awesome!" Suguha said excitedly. Only a year before, she probably would have hated the idea of spending an entire day around the water, given her inability to swim and associated hydrophobia, but ever since the others had taught her how to swim, she'd gradually eradicated all of her apprehension and was looking forward to getting to really swim in the ocean for the first time.

"Yeah, I haven't ever gotten to actually visit the beach in real life before, so spending the day outside sounds great!" chimed in Keiko.

"I guess that's the plan then," said Kirito. "Although…" he glanced momentarily at his gut, "I might take it easy for a little while after all of that."

"Well, even if that's the case, you should still come outside and enjoy the fresh air," Asuna said, "After all, that's one of the best things about coming all the way out here." Her tone took on a sterner note. "Plus, I know for a fact that you haven't been getting outside much at all for the last few weeks, so I'm not just going to let you hide out inside for this entire trip."

Keiko and Suguha gave soft giggles at Asuna's lecture, and even Shino cracked a faint smile as she nodded in agreement. "Also," Asuna continued, her voice wavering slightly in uncertainty, "You missed seeing us all in our swimsuits last year. So…you'd better not miss it this time!" The color that had crept onto her face betrayed her embarrassment at the statement.

For his part, Kazuto simply gave a bashful smile, feeling more than a little bit awkward about the whole thing. "Anyways," said Asuna, shaking off her nervousness, "since we've already eaten, we'll go ahead and change into our swimsuits and head down to the beach. You'd better finish eating so you can meet us down there!"

* * *

About twenty minutes later, the quintet found themselves down on the beach, eagerly taking advantage of the beautiful weather and picturesque shore and ocean before them. Content merely to recline and relax for the moment, Kazuto lay down on a beach towel with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head, basking in the warm morning sun.

A cool breeze drifted by and Kazuto allowed himself a small smile. It felt so nice to just do nothing for once. He always loved the luxury of being able to lie down and take a nap, as he had occasionally done in both Aincrad and Alfheim, but there weren't many places that he could do so in the real world. Even in those places where it was theoretically possible for him to do so, it was generally frowned upon to just fall asleep in a public area. Now that he had the opportunity, he decided that the experience felt far nicer here than in the virtual world.

"Hey Silica," came Asuna's voice, "would you mind helping rub this sunblock on my back? It's kind of hard to reach everywhere myself."

That caught Kazuto's attention, and he unconsciously squirmed a bit.

"Sure, if you don't mind helping me as well," Keiko responded, "What about you Shino? Do you want some help too?"

"Sure, that'd be great," Shino's voice responded.

Kazuto couldn't keep himself from fidgeting as unbidden thoughts began crossing his mind. Why hadn't Asuna asked him for help? He imagined how nice it would feel as he rubbed the sunscreen onto his wife's back, feeling her soft hair as he brushed it aside… Desperate to push away such thoughts, he tried to think about something else. Sword skills. That would do it. He tried to mentally list each of the sword skills that could be used in ALO, beginning with one-handed skills and planning on moving on to two-handed and weapon specific skills after that. Unfortunately, the pop of the cap off of the sunscreen broke his concentration. He couldn't stop himself from thinking about the girls nearby, and how much he wanted to watch them. _Don't look_ , he mentally commanded himself, _don't look, don't look, don't look_ …

Involuntarily, his eyes opened, and he couldn't stop himself from staring at Asuna, Keiko, and Shino laid out nearby. Asuna's red and white striped bikini immediately drew his gaze, though he supposed that that was the point. Asuna was laying on her stomach on one of the other beach towels that they had brought down with them as Keiko rubbed sunscreen onto her back. While not quite as eye catching as Asuna's outfit, the younger girl's swimsuit was still quite attractive, with its soft yellow and pink color scheme perfectly fitting its wearer's personality. Next to them, Shino sat under an umbrella, legs scrunched up as she focused on the book she'd brought down with her. She was still wearing a t-shirt over her swimsuit, as she'd mentioned that she'd prefer to just relax in the shade for a while.

As if sensing his gaze, Asuna's eyes shifted towards Kazuto and their eyes locked for just a moment. Asuna shot a knowing smile at him, as if sensing his thoughts, causing Kazuto to quickly look elsewhere. His gaze shifted out towards the ocean, where Suguha had immediately taken off to upon arriving at the waterfront. As he watched his adopted sister swimming vigorously off in the distance, Kazuto couldn't help but give a smile. He had to admit, Asuna, Keiko, and Rika had done a great job teaching Suguha to swim. Just a few years ago, she would have made all kinds of excuses as to why she didn't want to go into the water, unwilling to admit that she was scared and that she didn't even know how to swim. Now, she took to the water as if she had been born to; he was certain that, in another life, if Suguha hadn't committed herself to kendo, she could have easily been an Olympic grade swimmer.

"Hey Kirito," Keiko asked, excitement in her voice, "do you want to help us build a sandcastle? It's been forever since I've done something like that, and with more people, we can make something really cool!"

"Aren't you a little bit old for something like that?" Kazuto questioned in a deadpan voice.

Keiko adopted a slightly pouty expression, and next to her, Asuna frowned as well. "Come on Kirito," Asuna chided, "it'll be fun! We are at the beach after all."

"Alright," Kazuto sighed, "I'll help you guys out."

* * *

The three of them spent the next hour-and-a-half huddled on the shorefront where the wet sand was ideally suited for molding into shape. Though they didn't explicitly agree on what form their structure would take, the three seemed to have had the same idea, and after carefully packing the circular base into shape, a miniature model of Aincrad slowly began to take shape. After about half an hour of work, even Shino decided to put down her novel and come help out. She finally shed her shirt, revealing her dark, navy blue bikini.

Seeing the four bunched up together, Suguha decided to take a break from her swim and returned to the beach, giving them five people to work on the project. With so many people, the structure really started to come together. After roughly another hour of work, the five all sat back, rather worn out from the laborious work, and admired the end result. While not perfect, and certainly not cleanly showing all 100 floors of the castle, anyone familiar with Aincrad would have been able to identify it right away.

As the tired friends sat back and admired their handiwork, a shout from above them drew their attention. "Hey you guys! We're back! Did you miss us much?" Rika's voice echoed from above, and Kazuto turned to see her and Argo standing up by the road looking down, several large sacks and boxes in their hands. Kazuto was honestly surprised that they'd been able to haul so much back with them, whatever it was that they'd gotten.

"Glad you guys could finally make it," Kazuto yelled back, though it was slightly halfhearted due to his weariness from the last hour's work, "I was wondering if you two had just decided to ditch us and go off on your own!"

"Nyahaha," Argo laughed, "Trust us Kii-boy, once you see what we brought, you'll understand why we skipped out for the morning."

"Well, we'll have to wait for a bit," Asuna shouted up, "We're all a little worn out, and I think it's about time to fix something to eat for lunch."

"Alrighty then," Rika replied, "We'll go ahead and meet you inside then!"

* * *

A few minutes later, the group reunited back in the beach house, enjoying the cool air inside the building. Asuna pulled out some ingredients from the refrigerator and started plating sandwiches for the group to have a light lunch, with Shino giving a bit of extra help even though Asuna seemed able to handle most of the job on her own. The others sat back and lounged around, taking the chance to rest for a bit.

"So, where did the two of you take off to?" Kazuto asked Rika and Argo, "And what was all of that that you brought back with you?"

The two girls shared a glance with each other. "You'll find out soon enough, Kirito," Rika replied.

"I'm pretty sure that everyone'll like what we have planned though," Argo added.

Excited by the prospect of finding out whatever secret Rika and Argo were hiding, the group hurriedly chowed through their lunch. Even when Asuna offered to make more food, everyone else declined, both because of the large breakfast they'd eaten earlier, and out of anticipation of the mysterious surprise.

"Alright then," Kazuto said as everyone finished up, "I think it's about time you told us what you've been scheming up."

"Fine," Rika said in a playfully exasperated voice, "Since you can't stand to be kept in suspense any longer, I guess we'll share." As Rika spoke, Argo bounded back to the hallway, returning only moments later with a large plastic trash bag.

Kazuto blinked in surprise as he spotted the colorful plastic objects inside. "Are those…water guns?" he asked in slight confusion.

The two girls grinned broadly, causing a sense of unease deep within Kazuto. "That's right," Rika confirmed, "The idea just came to me last night. It's summer, and we're all out at the beach, so what could be more appropriate?"

"To be honest, once Rika here told me about her plan, I was ashamed that I didn't think of it myself," Argo commented, "It really was an inspired idea. We have a few other surprises for later, but this is the big one."

A thought came to Kazuto, and he shot a concerned glance at Shino. The girl just smiled. "It's fine," she assured, "I've gotten to where I can deal with guns reasonably well. Even if I hadn't, I think these things are so absurd that I doubt I'd have ever been scared of them anyways."

"Alright, as long as you're sure it's okay," Kazuto replied. "Anyways, so, we're just going to shoot at each other with water guns?" he asked Rika, "I guess that seems like it could be fun." However, his voice betrayed his lack of enthusiasm over the idea.

His tone didn't evade Rika's notice. "Don't underestimate me," she admonished with clear annoyance in her voice, "Trust me, there's far more to my plan than just 'shooting at each other with water guns.'" Digging through the sack a bit, she withdrew two large handkerchiefs, one black, one red. She tossed the black one to Kazuto, who snatched it out of the air, and the other to Shino, who likewise deftly caught the piece of cloth.

The two looked at Rika, clearly uncertain about why she'd just thrown handkerchiefs at them; fortunately, Rika wasn't planning on leaving them in confusion for long. "What we're going to do is have ourselves a game of water gun capture the flag! I assume that everyone here has played capture the flag before, right?"

Keiko, Asuna, and Suguha just stared at her, obviously having no idea what she was talking about. Kazuto just gave a slight shrug. "I guess I'm familiar with the general rules, seeing as a lot of games have it as a mode, but I can't say that I've ever actually played it in real life before."

"Seriously?" Rika groaned, "What the hell did you guys do growing up that you never played capture the flag?" She gave a sigh. "Oh well, I guess I can explain the rules, since it's not like it's really complicated anyways. We're going to split into two teams and divide the area into two sections. Each team will hide its flag, the handkerchief, somewhere on their side, and then when we start, each team will search for the other's flag. If they can find it and return it to their side, that team wins!"

"So, where do the water guns come in?" Asuna asked.

"That'll be how we sort of tag people out," Rika explained, "If you get hit by the water from one of the guns, you have to return to your team's side, if you're not already there, then stay out of play for one minute. We don't really have any way to enforce that, but I think we can get away with using some sort of honor system."

"What if we get hit by water, but it's not actually a hit from the gun?" Keiko asked curiously.

"Hmm," Rika pondered, "I hadn't really thought about that. How about if it's a direct or glancing hit from the stream then you're out, but not if you just get spray or mist on you?" Everyone nodded in agreement. "Alright then! Kazuto, Shino, since you two are the only ones here who have experience with guns, you're going to be the captains for your teams. You'll take turns picking who among the rest of us you want to join you."

"Wait a minute," Kazuto objected, "between you, Asuna, Keiko, Suguha, and Argo, there are five other people to pick. Won't the teams be unbalanced?"

"Don't you worry a bit about that Kii-boy," Argo said, waving her hand, "I'll be sitting this part out. I've got a special role, but you'll have to wait and see what it is."

"Alright then," Kazuto said, a little worn out by the continuous mysteries. "Shino, do you want to pick first?"

She smirked at him. "I think I'll let you choose first Kazuto. After all, you're going to need all the help you can get.

Kazuto grinned back, excited at the implied challenge laid down by Shino. "If that's how you want to play this, it sounds good to me." He looked over to the remaining girls. "Asuna, you're with me."

The other girls internally groaned. Of course he'd pick Asuna first. Even though Kazuto had agreed to their proposal, and they had no reason to doubt the sincerity of his returned feelings towards them, the fact remained that the relationship between him and Asuna was still something that they could hardly hope to achieve.

"I kind of figured that you'd pick Asuna first, so I'm not too worried," Shino confidently remarked. "Suguha, how about you join my team?"

Kazuto gave a grimace at that, but he wasn't too surprised. No offense to Keiko or Rika, but Sugu was clearly the best pick for this kind of athletic event. Now, that left the two best friends as the remaining picks. It was a rather tricky decision deciding which of them to choose; Rika was always energetic and gung-ho, but she also tended to be stubborn and liked to do her own thing. On the other hand, Kazuto had had a chance to really work with Keiko before and knew that she tended to be more willing to fill the role of team player. Plus, he knew that, despite her own considerable accomplishments, people tended to underestimate her given her relatively smaller statute and younger age. In the end, all of those factors came together to help him reach a decision. "Keiko," he said, "How about you join us?"

Keiko's face lit up as she bounded over to where Kazuto and Asuna were standing. Rika just gave a wry grin. "I guess I'm with you two then," she said, walking over to where Shino and Suguha stood. "Now that we have teams established, we can go ahead and start. How do you guys want to divide the area up?"

"How about we have the beach as one half, and the area around the house through to the road as the other half," Shino proposed, "and we can use the steps connecting them as the dividing line." Everyone nodded their assent to the suggestion.

"Since I got first pick on team members, I think it's only fair that you get to choose which half you want," Kazuto said, "We wouldn't want things to be too unfair, right?"

"You might just regret that," Shino replied, stepping comfortably back into her role as a rival to Kazuto. "We'll go ahead and take the side up top by the house, and you guys can have the beach area." To Shino's amusement and satisfaction, she noticed Kazuto give a slight grimace; she knew it was going to be a lot tougher on them having to run up the steps in order to reach their side than it would be for her, Suguha, and Lisbeth to race down the steps in order to reach the beach.

"Well, now that everything's ready, let's get these all filled up, then everyone can decide where to hide their flags and we can start!" Lisbeth said cheerfully.

* * *

It took around ten minutes for everyone to choose their preferred water gun from the pile that Rika and Argo had bought and to fill them from the hydrant outside the beach house. After that, the group split into their respective teams and moved off to decide on where they wanted to hide their flag. Down on the beach, Kazuto, Asuna, and Keiko stood in a loose huddle to discuss their strategy.

"So, since this area is pretty open, I think we should have our flag as deep within our territory as possible," Kazuto recommended, "that way, it'll be more difficult for the other three to either find our flag or to return it to their side." Asuna and Keiko nodded in agreement. Ideally they would have liked to completely hide their flag, but Rika had admonished everyone that, in the name of fairness and ease of play, the flags had to be at least partially visible. That meant no burying them or otherwise totally concealing them from sight.

Suddenly, Keiko's face lit up a bit. "How about we stuff the flag into one of those crevices over there?" She suggested, pointing to a small rock outcropping that marked one of the edges of the beach. "We could shove it in there, and make it harder for anyone to pull it back out!"  
"Great idea Keiko," Kazuto said with a grin, "that should make things difficult for them. Now we just need to settle on a strategy." He glanced back and forth at his two teammates, trying to figure out what the best plan would be. "Alright," he said after thinking for a moment, "Here's what we'll do. Asuna, you and I will alternate probing their side and looking for their flag. If one of us gets tagged out, the other can take their place so that we always have someone on the offensive. Keiko, since you'll know exactly where our flag is, you'll be our last line of defense. Try to take out anyone who makes it through and starts looking for our flag."

Keiko looked a bit disappointed that she was being essentially relegated to guard duty, but she didn't protest the decision, since it did make sense. "We can always change our strategy later if we have to, but I think this is pretty good to start with," Kazuto continued, "Does that sound good to everyone?" Both Keiko and Asuna nodded in assent.

"Hey, are you guys ready yet!?" Rika yelled out impatiently from the top of the steps, "We've been waiting on you for almost five minutes now!"

Kazuto seriously doubted that it had been nearly that long, but he was used to Rika's exaggerated mannerisms by now. "Yeah, we're ready to go!" he shouted in reply.

"Alrighty then!" Rika responded, "We'll start in three…two…one…go!" As soon as Rika's countdown ended, Asuna and Kazuto bolted towards the stairs separating the beach from the house above. While Asuna stopped at the base, Kazuto continued bounding up the steps, where he saw Rika and Suguha barreling down in the other direction towards him. For a second, he considered trying to simply rush past them, since the stairway was wide enough to allow such a move, but as he saw Rika raise her gun towards him, he quickly realized that they wouldn't just let him by even if he wanted to do so.

With only a moment to react, Kazuto hunched over as a stream of water from Rika's weapon passed over him. At the same time, he brought his own gun up and pulled down on the trigger twice, sending spurts of water at both Rika and Sugu. Suguha just laughed in enjoyment as she nimbly avoided the shot, but the first stream hit Rika right in the face.

"Dammit," muttered Rika as she turned around to head back up the stairs. Kazuto rushed past her, while Suguha continued her way down towards the beach, apparently not wanting to bother getting drawn into a shootout with Kazuto. As Kazuto reached the top of the stairway, he barely had time to register the sight of Shino lying on her stomach next to the stairs before he felt the blast of water from her gun hit his chest. She gave a smirk and a little wave of her hand as Kazuto sighed and made his way back down the steps.

Reaching the beach once again, Kazuto saw Asuna standing with her arms crossed, a clear look of annoyance on her face. "Did Sugu manage to hit you?" Kazuto asked.

"Yes," Asuna replied, "I tried to hit her a few times, but she's really fast. Then I guess she had enough of trying to dodge me, so she went ahead and shot back at me."

"Well, she has been practicing kendo for pretty much her entire life," said Kazuto, "She'd never have made it that far without good reflexes. How much longer are you out for?"

"That's just about one minute," Asuna replied, picking her gun back up off the sand, "I guess I'll head up and see if I have any better luck up there than you."

"Be careful," Kazuto warned, "Shino's set up next to the stairs."

"Thanks, I'll be sure to watch out for her," Asuna stated as she headed up towards the beach house. Meanwhile, Kazuto was mentally counting down how long he had left until he could get back in the action. As he waited, he watched in amusement as Keiko and Suguha chased around after each other, both girls trying to land a hit on the other. Finally, Suguha stopped and looked down for a moment, then slumped her shoulders as she walked back towards the stairs as Keiko gave a victorious cheer.

"So, you finally got taken out, huh?" Kazuto asked as Sugu walked by him.

"Yeah," his sister/cousin replied in a slightly tired voice, "I mean, I've never used one of these things before, so that makes it a bit harder to hit people, but I guess me being a bigger target gave Keiko a bit of an advantage."

"Yeah, being a smaller target seems like a good thing when it comes to something like this," Kazuto agreed. "Anyways, my time's up, so I'll be seeing you later!" Picking up his gun, Kazuto quickly swiveled towards the steps and blasted Rika in the face again right as she reached the bottom.

"Are you serious!?" Rika griped as she was forced to head right back up the stairs again.

"Remember, this whole thing was your idea!" Kazuto yelled back at her. She casually flashed him a rather vulgar gesture with her hand without even turning back around to face him. Kazuto grinned. Oh yes, this was turning out to be much more fun than he'd originally thought…

* * *

For roughly the next hour, the six teenagers raced back and forth around the area, with each team trying to gain some advantage over the other. While thus far Kazuto, Asuna, and Keiko's flag had remained hidden, eventually Asuna had managed to break through Shino, Rika, and Suguha's defenses around the beach house and found their flag tied around the doorknob of the house's road facing entrance. She'd even managed to get it untied and started bringing it back, only to get tagged out by Shino after carrying the flag about ten feet. Now, the three were jealously guarding their flag, aware that if they got too careless, it could easily be snagged and returned, resulting in them losing the game.

The game was, however, taking its toll on everyone. Constantly running up and down the steps in the summer heat quickly began to tire out even the athletic Suguha. After about half an hour, Kazuto had given Keiko the go-ahead to break off from her position on the beach and let her have a chance at going on the offensive, giving him and Asuna a bit of a breather.

However, physical energy wasn't the only thing running short. Kazuto could tell that his gun was feeling significantly lighter, as most of the water in its chamber had been used up. Given that the game wasn't looking like it was going to end in the immediate future, that was not a good sign. But, if their guns were running dry, surely that meant the other team's were low as well. Fortunately, it seemed like there was a temporary lull in the action, probably from Rika, Shino, and Suguha being equally tired after running around for so long.

"Hey! Asuna! Keiko!" Kazuto shouted, hailing his two teammates over. Both girls heeded his call and made their way over to a shaded area next to the steps where they could temporarily enjoy a break from the sun blazing overhead. "How are you guys doing on water in your guns?" he asked, "Mine is running low, which means we probably need to get them refilled as soon as possible."

"Yeah, I'm nearly out too," Asuna confirmed, "but how are we supposed to refill them? The hydrant is really the only efficient way to do it, and it's in the middle of the other team's territory."

Kazuto cursed internally. He hadn't even really thought of that, and had just automatically assumed that wherever he could refill their weapons would be neutral territory. "Well, that's going to make things a bit more difficult," he said, "I'd thought about trying to get them all refilled at once, but if we have to make our way through to the hydrant, it would be too risky to leave our side completely unguarded." He thought for a moment. "How about we try cycling through like we have been for trying to get their flag? We could have one of us try to draw them off by going after their flag, while one of us refills our weapon and one of us stays to guard our flag."

"That sounds like a good plan," Asuna said, while Keiko just nodded in agreement.

"Alright then," said Kazuto, "I'll go first then in order to check the area out. Keiko, you can make another try for the flag. Remember, you're mainly trying to draw their attention, so get the flag if you can, but just try to keep them distracted for as long as possible."

"Got it!" Keiko replied, trying her best to sound confident.

"Let's go then!" said Kazuto, as he hurried up the stairs. Keiko followed him and both she and Kazuto kept their weapons raised in case they ran into their adversaries. Oddly enough, however, it looked as though Shino, Rika, and Suguha had completely withdrawn from the area around the stairs, as none of the three could be seen anywhere. "It looks like they're probably still keeping a closer guard around their flag," Kazuto observed, "Try to keep them busy. I shouldn't need too much time to get this refilled."

With a nod of her head, Keiko ran off towards the side of the beach house where the flag had last fallen. As soon as she began moving, Kazuto made his way to the hydrant. He knew that there was no way Keiko could avoid all three of their opponents for too long, so he needed to make this quick.

Hastening to the side of the house, Kazuto quickly removed the cap, which he had already loosened beforehand, and turned on the hydrant, trying to work as quickly as he could. However, there wasn't much he could do while he waited other than look around. Curiously, he saw tiny fragments of color strewn across the ground. He hadn't noticed them as he was moving, but now that he was nearer and able to look more closely, they were clearly visible. Realization struck him suddenly: had someone been tossing water—

Before the thought had even fully crossed his mind, he felt a _thump_ on his head, immediately followed by the sensation of cold water exploding all over his head and upper body. He gave a slight gasp at the unexpected feeling and began looking all around for the source of the surprise attack.

A familiar, raucous laugh coming from up above soon gave away the identity of his assailant. Looking up, he saw Argo perched on the roof, largely concealed in a shadowy nook. Still sputtering, Kazuto was speechless for a moment before finally getting his question out. "What the hell are you doing up there!?" he demanded.

"I told ya that I had a special role Kii-boy," Argo informed him, her voice filled with obvious mirth, "It wouldn't be too much of a challenge if everyone could just resupply whenever they wanted now, would it?"

She did have a point. Certainly Kazuto hadn't expected her surprise attack, and judging by the other balloon fragments scattered around, clearly he wasn't her first victim. "Don't tell me," he said as the thought dawned on him, "Did the others already try to get refills only for you to ambush them? Is that why they haven't been on the attack for so long?"

"That's some pretty good deduction there Kii-boy," she said in a slightly congratulatory tone, "but if that's the case, then they're probably ready to attack again, wouldn't you say?" Leaning her ear towards the far side of the house, she seemed to listen for a brief moment before turning back to Kazuto. "Ya'd better get back to your side so you can start counting down though," she warned, "it looks like poor A-chan's gonna be outnumbered here in a moment."

Turning his head, Kazuto saw Keiko racing back down, followed closely behind by Rika and Suguha. "Damn!" he swore, giving the faucet a yank to turn it off and then bolting towards the stairs.

"Sorry Kirito," Keiko said in a pant, "I tried to avoid getting hit for longer, but with all three of them over there, it was too much!"

"Don't worry about it," Kazuto replied, "I ended up getting tagged out by Argo; she's hiding on the roof above the hydrant with water balloons to hit anyone who comes near. But right now, we just need to get back to Asuna as quickly as possible." Fortunately, even though he'd technically been tagged out by Argo, he'd still managed to mostly refill his weapon, so that was a positive, even if he couldn't use it for the moment. But, that didn't mean that someone else couldn't.

As he and Keiko reached the bottom, they were met with a clearly surprised Asuna, who had no idea what exactly was happening. "Asuna!" Kazuto called out, "Catch!" He tossed his weapon over to her and, quickly deducing what was going on, she caught it and immediately swiveled towards the stairs. Just as Rika and Suguha came into view, she swiftly stepped to the side, giving the trigger two quick squeezes and sending a pair of water streams arcing towards the other two girls, who were caught flatfooted by the unexpected counterattack. Both shots found their marks, causing Suguha and Rika to stop and forcing them to turn back and make their way to the top again.

Suguha just gave a shrug as if to say _what can you do,_ but Rika couldn't help letting out her frustrations a bit. "Shit!" she swore, "I thought for sure we were going to have you this time, since we actually had a numbers advantage. Oh well. That was some nice shooting and good reflexes though Asuna!"

Asuna smiled back at her friend. "Thanks Li—"

She was cut off midsentence as Shino dashed in like a gale, quickly tagging the distracted Asuna with a well-aimed shot before continuing on deeper into her, Kazuto, and Keiko's territory. Kazuto groaned internally; with all three of them now temporarily out, Shino would have nearly a full minute of free rein to look for their flag. Kazuto silently counted down the time until his minute was up, hoping that Shino wouldn't be able to find their flag in that time.

Unfortunately, given the fact that she and her teammates had already searched most of the beach area earlier, she was now able to narrow down the remaining hiding spots for the flag. Kazuto watched as she peered into the rocks, then reached in to where their flag was placed. _Five, four_ , Kazuto counted down internally, readying himself to stop Shino as soon as his time was up, _three, two, one._ He immediately moved forward, and Asuna returned his earlier favor by tossing his gun back to him. "Keiko! Asuna! Go for their flag as soon as you can!" he directed. The two girls nodded, and Keiko immediately took off, since her time had been the same as Kazuto's.

Shino noticed that he was running towards her, and with one final tug she managed to free the flag from its resting place. However, she decided against taking the time to try picking it up, especially now that Keiko was making her own move for their flag. Dodging a shot of water from Kazuto, she raced back across the beach and up the steps, somehow still having enough energy to run up rather than walk.

"Let's go Asuna," Kazuto said as Shino retreated, "we can go ahead and get your gun refilled while they're all busy." The two pushed through their exhaustion and climbed up the steps again, making sure to clear the area at the top to make sure that none of their opponents were waiting. Presumably, they'd all heeded the danger and had returned to protecting their own flag. As they approached the hydrant, Kazuto hopped to the right, dodging another water balloon that Argo halfheartedly lobbed their way, then sending a spurt of water at her in response, hitting the older girl in the face.

"Eh, I guess I kinda had that coming," she admitted to Kazuto as she shook the water out of her hair, "Well, you two'd best take advantage of this while you have the chance if you still want to get more water. The other three pretty much gave up after a few times; I guess they figured they could just get by with what they have left."

"Yes!" Kazuto exclaimed, with just a little too much enthusiasm, "Asuna, all we have to do is just wait them out then and make sure they can't refill their weapons and we should be able to just grab their flag and win!"

"Well, we may not even have to wait," Asuna observed, pointing over to their left, where Keiko was enthusiastically running with the red handkerchief in her hands.

"Kirito! Asuna! I got the flag!" she yelled, excitement evident in her voice.

"Great!" Kazuto replied. He started to trot after Keiko, and turned back to Asuna. "All we need to do is just to protect her until she gets the flag back to—"

Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a spray of water hit his back. He saw Asuna give a jolt, indicating that she had been hit as well, then had to step out of the way to avoid being stampeded over by Shino, Suguha, and Rika, who were all running at a breakneck pace towards Keiko, apparently tapping into their last reservoir of strength for this final push.

"Well, that's not good," he drily observed as the three swept past and managed to take down Keiko too. He shook his head; how had they gone from a fairly confident position to having suffered a complete team sweep? He started making his way back towards the steps, hearing Argo's amused chuckles coming from behind him. At this point though, it didn't really matter how quickly they made it back. They'd overextended a bit, and now Suguha, Rika, and Shino had a clear path to return the flag to the beach house.

It didn't take them very long; after only about 40 seconds, the three came stumbling back up, with Shino holding up the black handkerchief in victory while Suguha and Rika cheered. Kazuto just let his weapon fall to the ground and gave a weary smile. True, it didn't feel great to lose, but the entire game had been a lot of fun anyways. "Congratulations you guys," Kazuto said, "that was a great game. I'm actually really glad you thought of this Rika."

"So you're saying that you actually doubted me?" Rika demanded in mock indignation, "I would've thought you'd have learned by now that my ideas are always great."

"Maybe great at making a mess," Kazuto shot back, enjoying the rise that he got as Rika scowled back at him.

"Anyways, I agree," Shino said, "this was a great idea. You guys kept it close pretty much the entire time too. We were just lucky to get the drop on you there at the end. But, I'm pretty beat after all of that. Is everyone else ready to go inside and cool down?"

"If you need to cool down, maybe this'll help ya!" Everyone spun around and looked up to where Argo was still perched on the roof top, just in time to watch a bundle of water balloons tumble down on top of them. The balloons burst against the ground or against the six people standing below, sending cool water splashing over them. For a moment, everyone was shocked into silence, then, one after another, they began laughing at the absurdity of the whole thing, enjoying the precious moment of carefree fun.

* * *

After that, the seven of them quickly cleaned up their mess, emptying the water guns and leaving them to dry, and also picking up the scattered fragments of water balloons that had littered the area. Once they were done, they followed Shino's suggestion and made their way back inside to recover after spending so much time racing around in the hot summer sun. In fact, by an unspoken consensus, most of the group headed off to their rooms to enjoy a nap, with Kazuto at the lead.

A few hours later, Kazuto was woken by a light knocking on his door frame. Sitting up, he saw Asuna standing outside, smiling in at him. "Hey Kirito," she said, "I thought it might be fun to get everyone together to help cook dinner tonight. Do you want to help? It might be useful for you to know how to make something besides that bland pasta dish you know."

Kazuto gave a slight yawn as he sat up and scoot himself off of the bed. "Sure," he said, blinking away any lingering particles in his eyes, "that seems like a good idea. Did you have something in mind you were wanting to fix?"

"I was thinking that curry would be pretty good," Asuna replied, "Of course, we made sure to grab some spices so you can make yours into as much of an inferno as you want. Meanwhile, the rest of us can enjoy normal curry like reasonable people."

Kazuto couldn't help but grin slightly at Asuna's jab. She'd developed a real passion for cooking and especially loved having her food appreciated by Kazuto and the others, but she made her annoyance known when Kazuto insisted on spicier and spicier meals. Not that that ever stopped her from fixing them anyways.

The two headed downstairs where they found Argo leading a yawning Rika and Keiko out of their room. Meanwhile, Suguha was sitting on one of the couches in the living room watching television, with the volume low enough so as to not disturb Shino, who had fallen asleep in one of the recliners, her book resting in her lap.

"Hey everyone," Asuna announced, "I was planning on fixing up something for dinner, and wanted you all to help. If you know how to cook, it'll be a nice way to show off your skills, and if you don't, then it'll be a great way to learn!" At her words, Argo began fidgeting slightly, while Rika gave a rather nervous smile. In contrast, Keiko and Suguha seemed rather excited as they energetically moved towards the kitchen.

Shino, awakened by Asuna's announcement, stood up slowly and stretched her arms out after her nap. "I guess that sounds like a good idea," she noted, "I guess I can see how much my cooking skills have improved; I've been pretty happy with the results, but now I can actually see what other people think."

* * *

Within a few minutes, the seven had managed to pull all of the ingredients Asuna said they needed out of the refrigerator and pantry, and divided up the tasks to get the process going. As it turned out, Argo and Rika lacked significant experience with fixing anything more complicated than the most basic of foods, so Asuna took pity on them and gave them relatively manageable tasks: slicing vegetables and managing the rice cooker respectively. Keiko didn't have much more experience than the two older girls, but she seemed a bit more enthusiastic, so much so that Asuna let her take care of fixing the base for the curry, melting butter over the stove and mixing in flour, curry powder, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato paste.

Meanwhile, Asuna assigned Suguha and Shino, the two girls with the most prior cooking skill and experience besides Asuna herself, with the more delicate steps in the recipe: toasting some of the spices and sautéing the onions, both of which required careful maintenance in order to avoid burning the ingredients. As for Kazuto, Asuna had instructed him to slice the chicken into cubes, then to help add all the ingredients together afterwards. However, with six other people, there wasn't much left for Asuna to do. In order to avoid quite literally having too many cooks in the kitchen, she decided to flit between the different prep stations, giving instructions for the recipe and advice to the more inexperienced hands. She smiled as she watched the others work with each other to put together the meal, with Rika and Argo trading banter with each other and teasing Kazuto over his far from uniform early products, Shino and Suguha sharing previous recipes and culinary advice, as well as giving Keiko some assistance when they felt necessary, and Keiko herself enthusiastically stirring her roux.

In fact, even though more than half of the chefs lacked any substantial experience with cooking, the entire process went off pretty much without a hitch, and it took just over thirty minutes for the more time intensive tasks to be completed. "Alright everyone, how about you take a break and I'll handle finishing everything up," Asuna said, stepping forward, "It should only be about twenty minutes, so if you want to go ahead and get dishes out, that would be great."

With that, everyone began to withdraw from the kitchen, though they were considerate enough to drop any dirty dishes and utensils into the sink for later cleaning. Now, Asuna could finally have some quiet time to focus on putting together the last elements of the curry, mixing the roux, the chicken, the vegetables and the spices together. The mixture began bubbling and the aroma it gave off smelled intoxicatingly delicious. Asuna smiled, quite pleased with her near finished product. It wouldn't be much longer before the curry was ready and the rice was just sitting in the cooker waiting to be served. She hoped that everyone would like the food, even more so because they had a hand in fixing it.

As she was considering the food, Asuna noticed a flash of movement and a quick glint of white ceramic darting in from her right side. With speed befitting her nickname, Asuna immediately slapped away the hand holding the spoon that had been going for the curry.

Argo pulled her hand back, her wrist stinging slightly from where Asuna had smacked it. "A-chan," she whined in an amusingly needy voice.

"That's what you get for trying to taste the food before it's ready," Asuna reprimanded, a no-nonsense look on her face. "It won't be much longer, so you can wait along with everyone else." Without even looking, she swung behind her on her left side and was rewarded with a quick yelp. "That goes for you too Kirito," she said.

"Well, so much for that," the black-haired boy said, pulling his hand back, "I guess it was worth a try."

"Anyways, Kirito," Asuna said as Argo slunk back to the dining room in defeat, "since you're here, how about you fix up your portion. That way you can make it as spicy as you want without tainting everyone else's food."

That got Kazuto's attention. As Asuna transferred some of the curry to a separate pot for Kazuto, the boy eagerly sifted through the various spices, sauces, and ingredients to pick out the ones he thought would work the best. Not having much experience with actually preparing food, Kazuto eventually settled on grabbing both chili oil and shichimi.

Asuna raised her eyebrows slightly. "I know that you like your food spicy Kirito," she cautioned, "but I'd be careful not to add too much of either of those. You can always add more later, but if it's too spicy there's not much that you can really do."

He sighed slightly. "Alright, I'll try to hold back a little bit."

* * *

Kazuto made sure to stick to Asuna's advice, and to his surprise he managed to hit a pleasant amount of spice that was still hot enough for his taste, but not so spicy as to smother the other flavors of the curry. The others seemed equally pleased with the end result, as everyone ended up getting at least a second helping. Once everyone had finished eating, most of the group sat back in their chairs, content to just enjoy the moment. Kazuto was particularly satisfied, with the entire day having been great fun and a fantastic way to start off their vacation together.

"Alright Kirito," Asuna said, standing up and finally breaking the silence, "We're going to try to clean up down here. You should head on up to your room and try to relax for a while."

"Yeah, I have a feeling you're going to need to rest up for a bit," Rika teased, shooting a subtle wink at Keiko.

For his part, Kazuto had almost completely forgotten the events of the upcoming evening, with that particular part of their agreement having nearly slipped his mind during the course of the day's excitement. Now reminded of what was expected of him, he paled slightly. But, even if for some reason his feelings had changed from when he'd given his answer the day before, he was in too deep to back out now. Besides, his feelings had in fact not changed; he still knew that he very much cared for and loved all six of the young women sharing the house with him and had dedicated himself to making them happy however he could. That certainly didn't alleviate his nervousness though.

"O-okay," he managed to stammer out, awkwardly withdrawing from the kitchen as the girls finished cleaning up the aftermath of their cooking adventure.

Fortunately, with six people, the cleanup didn't take too long either and soon only a handful of dishes remained to be cleaned. Taking note of the situation, Asuna spoke up again. "Silica, why don't you go ahead and get yourself ready. We can handle the rest, so go ahead and take whatever time you need."

A clearly nervous Keiko glanced around at everyone else as if making sure that it really was okay for her to leave, then gave a wordless nod of thanks as she scurried off to the bathroom.

* * *

As predicted, it took under ten minutes for the remaining five girls to finish cleaning, drying, and putting away the remaining dishes and utensils. Once they were done, everyone dispersed through an unspoken agreement, either returning to their rooms or heading towards the living room to watch TV or otherwise pass their evening.

For her part, Rika decided to head back to her room for the moment. As she passed through the hallway, she noticed that the bathroom door was still closed. _I guess Keiko must still be in there getting ready_ , Rika thought. Maybe she'd get the chance to tease her friend one more time once she was finished. So, Rika decided to wait and catch Keiko before she headed upstairs.

However, five minutes passed and Keiko still hadn't come out. Then another five minutes. Then ten. Soon, as far as Rika could guess, Keiko was coming up on forty minutes inside the bathroom. The brunette was becoming annoyed, but also concerned. What was keeping Keiko for so long?

Walking out of the bedroom and into the hallway, Rika headed straight for the bathroom door. She knocked on the door. "Hey, Keiko!" she said, "What's taking so long? Are you almost done in there!?"

A few seconds passed, then the door unlocked and Keiko's hand shot out, grabbing Rika's arm and pulling her inside before the younger girl hurriedly locked the door again. It only took a moment for Rika to shake off her surprise. "Keiko!" she demanded, "What are you—"

"I don't know what to do," Keiko said softly, cutting Rika off midsentence. The older girl let her momentary annoyance vanish as she took a closer look at her friend. Keiko's eyes were watering, and it looked as if she might burst into tears at any moment.

Any thoughts of teasing her friend instantly evaporated from Rika's mind. "Alright Keiko," she said as gently as she could, taking a seat on the tile floor and indicating for her friend to take a seat next to her, "Can you tell me what's wrong?"

The younger girl nearly collapsed to the ground next to Rika. She sat for a moment, trying to steady herself and put into words what she wanted to say. "I thought that I had prepared myself for this," she began, "I thought I could be confident enough to go into this just like you, and Asuna and Leafa, and the others. But who am I kidding?" She started to choke up for a brief moment before managing to calm herself back down a little. "I mean, just look at me Rika. I'm not at all attractive like you guys. Even you pointed out how little I have…" she seemed to have difficulty finding the right word, and ended up just indicating around her breasts, "here. I'm not that much younger than Sugu or Shino, but I still look like some little kid. There's no way that anyone could find all of this attractive. I know Kirito would never say anything, but I just know that he doesn't see me the way he sees the rest of you."

Rika frowned slightly at her friend's rant. Had Keiko always felt this way? Like she wasn't good enough, or attractive enough compared to the rest of them? Rika suddenly regretted some of the times that she'd teased Keiko about her body or made similar comments. The younger girl always acted so happy and had never really pushed back at any of her comments. So, this sudden reaction had really caught Rika rather flatfooted.

"Keiko," Rika began, her tone substantially different from her usual impish personality, "listen. You don't have anything to be ashamed or afraid of. The truth is, you're really cute and attractive, and any guy would be lucky to be with you." Keiko looked at her, but the look in the younger girl's eyes made it clear that she wasn't convinced. "I'm not lying or just saying what you want to hear you know," Rika insisted, "You're just as attractive as any of us, and maybe even more. I mean, look at me." She gestured to her face, "My hair is messy and rough, I have something of a baby face, and I have these freckles all over. I'm hardly what you would consider to be the most conventionally attractive girl around."

"But it's not just that," she continued, "I tend to speak without thinking, and I rub a lot of people the wrong way. I'm not particularly girly a lot of the time either. To let you in on a secret, I didn't really get much business at my blacksmith's shop in old Aincrad until Asuna convinced me to wear that ridiculously frilly pink uniform. But you? You're probably the sweetest person I've ever met. You're always kind and thoughtful, and I've never heard you say anything bad about anyone. You're always harder on yourself than you should be. And Kirito? He loves that kind of thing. Trust me, you've got nothing to be worried about."

Keiko blinked away the tears that had gathered in her eyes, genuinely surprised at Rika's warm words. She hadn't ever heard anyone really talk about her like that before, and the fact that the words were coming from Rika, who tended not to be particularly sappy or sentimental, made it even more unexpected. Even so, after so long being overlooked or ignored, it was hard to really take such a statement at face value. "Do you really believe that?" she asked, filled with the need for confirmation.

"Of course!" Rika affirmed, "I'm your best friend, right? I'm not going to lie to you about something like this. You have absolutely no reason to doubt yourself. Now," she concluded, rising from her position on the floor "stand up and go get him! That loveable idiot is upstairs just waiting for you and you have first dibs on him! So, don't waste this opportunity!"

Following her friend's lead, Keiko stood up and gave Rika a soft smile. "Thanks Rika," she said sincerely, "I…no one's ever talked about me like that before. So, thank you."

"Like I said, you're my best friend," Rika reiterated, "and I'm not about to let you dump on yourself like that." With her friend no longer visibly distressed, Rika was able to notice something she had overlooked and hadn't really thought about when she'd first been pulled in. "You're not wearing your hair ties," she noted, "Your hair actually looks really good without them."

"I thought…maybe they made me look a bit too childish," Keiko replied shyly,

"You should definitely wear your hair down more often," Rika said, "not that your pigtails don't look great too, but it's hard to appreciate just how smooth your hair is when it's tied up like that."

"I'll keep that in mind," replied Keiko as she walked over and opened the door to leave. She opened it, but then turned back for a moment. "Thanks again for everything Rika. Well, wish me luck!"

"Of course!" Rika responded, "Make sure you have fun tonight! Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Keiko nodded and nodded and smiled as she headed out into the hallway, starting her way upstairs towards the master bedroom where Kazuto was staying. Suddenly, Rika was hit with a burst of inspiration, one last little tease before her friend went off. Unable to resist, she stepped out into the hallway. "Just remember," Rika called out, giving Keiko some parting words, "you owe me all the juicy details tomorrow!"

* * *

Upstairs, Kazuto lay back against the backboard of his bed, mindlessly watching the latest action movie that he could find on television. At this point, he relished any way to take his mind off of what was to come. He'd been up there for quite a while, and as if just knowing what was going to happen soon wasn't stressful enough, the interminable waiting was even worse. He had only ever done this once before, and that hadn't even been in the real world.

He wondered which of the girls would be coming through his door. He would obviously feel most comfortable if it was Asuna, given that they had already seen all of each other before, but given that there were six possible girls, the odds of that weren't particularly good. It still befuddled him how all six of the girls, Asuna, Rika, Keiko, Suguha, Shino, and Argo, had all not only fallen in love with him, but actually wanted him to impregnate them. Despite his relative poise and conviction in accepting their proposal the night before, the idea of suddenly being a father to seven children, including Yui, was a rather daunting prospect. But, he supposed that his own fears were nothing compared to those of the girls. After all, they were the ones who would have to undergo the entire ordeal of pregnancy and childbirth. Knowing that things definitely wouldn't be easy for them just made Kazuto double down on his desire to provide for them as best he could, and to be there for all of them every step of the way.

Suddenly, the door clinked slightly as the handle turned, causing Kazuto to jolt slightly. He quickly grabbed the remote and turned the television off, trying to look as composed as possible. To his surprise, it was Keiko who walked in, meekly closing the door behind her. She was dressed in a pale-yellow pair of night clothes and her hair was untied, falling loosely just past her shoulders. "Hey Kirito," Keiko said shyly as she climbed into the bed next to Kazuto.

Kazuto smiled at her. "Hi Keiko," he said in reply. The younger girl pulled up some of the covers and snuggled up against Kazuto, but he could sense that she was rather uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her or any of the girls. He gave Keiko a serious look. "Have you changed your mind?" he asked, "We really don't have to do anything if you don't want to."

"No!" Keiko quickly exclaimed before subduing her voice again, "I still…want to do this, but…maybe not right away?"

"That's fine with me," Kazuto replied, secretly a bit relieved. He remembered how uncomfortable he'd initially felt when Asuna had suddenly made her intentions known back in Aincrad. Of course, he'd understood, and certainly hadn't been opposed to her desire, but that hadn't made things any less awkward or uncomfortable initially. If Keiko needed time to ready herself, he was more than happy to give her as long as she needed. "Here," he said, picking the remote up from the nightstand next to the bed and offering it to his companion, "I was just watching TV earlier, so why don't you see if there's anything that you wanted to watch?"

Keiko gratefully took the remote, pointed it toward the television and clicked the power button. Kazuto just lay back, watching as Keiko flipped through the channels, curious as to what she would settle on. To his mild surprise, she ended up stopping on what looked like an old wildlife documentary. It looked like they'd lucked out and the program was just beginning; the narration was in English, which made following it a bit more difficult, but fortunately the program came with subtitles in Kanji.

Apparently, the program was covering wildlife in forested areas, and while Kazuto wasn't particularly interested in such shows, he did find it a nice change of pace from his usual fare. Honestly, it had been too long since he'd actually gotten to appreciate real, natural beauty, even though Asuna had been trying to convince him to come visit her grandparents' old home up in the mountains. More importantly however, Keiko seemed to really be entranced by the program. Other than a few moments when he caught her stealing a glance towards him, either to see if he was also enjoying the show or because she actually just wanted to look at him, her focus remained glued on the television screen.

Kazuto smiled warmly at Keiko's reactions: she would give an occasional 'aww' when some particularly cute animals were featured, such as a group of fledgling owls or a pair of snow leopards, let her mouth hang open slightly in amazement at the incredible height of some of the trees on display or the emergence of literal billions of insects all at once (something that kind of made Kazuto a little uncomfortable), and gave a scowl as some small mammal stole eggs from nearby bird's nests.

As the show went on, Kazuto found himself focusing more on Keiko and her reactions to the show than to the show itself. He'd never really thought about any of Keiko's interests, beyond VR or her obsession with the latest pop music. But, in hindsight, he really shouldn't have been too surprised. After all, she was one of the few players in SAO to have successfully become a beast tamer and the love and devotion she showed to her miniscule animal companion indicated that her feelings extended beyond merely what one would expect from a player just taking advantage of a useful game feature.

Suddenly, Keiko jumped a bit, causing Kazuto to jolt in alarm as well. Glancing back towards the TV, he saw a tiger with a lifeless monkey hanging from its jaws. Apparently, he'd missed the predator's strike and Keiko herself had been surprised at the suddenness of its attack as well. While he was distracted, he felt something warm and noticed that Keiko had slipped her hand into his.

With that, Kazuto decided that the initiative was his. He slipped his hand away from Keiko's, causing her to flash a rather sad and disappointed look, but that was replaced by an expression of happy understanding as Kazuto slipped his arm behind her back and pulled her in closer to him. With the gap between them now closed substantially, Keiko nuzzled her head against Kazuto's shoulder as they finished watching the rest of the show.

As the program ended, Keiko took the remote again and turned the television off, snuggling up closer to Kazuto to the point that she was almost on top of him. "You know," Kazuto said, "I never knew that you enjoyed stuff like that. I've never heard you talk about anything like it before."

Keiko leaned back a bit. "Yeah," she said, "I've loved animals for a long time. Maybe…it's because I felt like I could always trust animals more than people."

Kazuto looked down at Keiko, but didn't say anything, allowing her to continue. "I'd been alone for a long time before SAO. My parents are both university professors and travel a lot to give lectures around the country. They've always been so obsessed with their work, that I never felt like anything other than an annoyance to them. I mean, they left me by myself as soon as they were able, and they even named me after a stupid element of all things, just because it was a 'family tradition.'"

"I guess they at least felt like leaving me completely on my own was wrong. I didn't really have any other kids nearby who wanted anything to do with me, so they ended up getting me a cat, Pina." She gave a bittersweet smile. "Since I felt like I had been largely abandoned by people, I started trying to fill my life with animals instead. I had Pina, and I spent time at the nearest animal shelter helping to take care of the animals there. After so much time dealing with animals, I decided I wanted to become a vet. I still do!"

"When I'm helping animals, I can at least feel useful. Even though now I have you, and Rika, and Asuna, and everyone else, I still feel like I'm such a burden to everyone. I'm constantly needing help from Suguha or Rika, and I'm the reason why…Asuna ended up losing her memories in Ordinal Scale." That particular incident still weighed heavily on her, and she had to stop for a moment. "But you've never treated me like that Kirito," she continued, "Even after you had to save me back in SAO, you didn't act like I was a burden. You didn't even treat me like a mascot, like how so many other people did. You helped me out, and gave me advice, but you treated me like an equal."

"I love you for that," she said, "I couldn't tell you after we first met, and when you gave me that birthday gift, I accidentally let it slip and tried to cover it up. You've always been so kindhearted, but you don't even recognize it. You deserve to be happy, and I didn't think you'd ever notice someone like me." She looked up at him, her feelings visible in her eyes. "But, now I can tell you without any hesitation or regret that I love you."

Kazuto looked over at Keiko, mixed feelings of warmth and confusion welling inside him. She really saw his actions that way and thought so much of him? He certainly didn't think that what he'd done had been anything special. But clearly she saw things differently. And now, he considered how he felt about her: her innocent kindness, her honest zeal for those things she was passionate about, and her ability to see the best in everyone. After so long around Keiko, Kazuto knew how he felt about her too.

"I love you too Keiko," he said, "you may not realize it, but you're a really special person. You may not feel like you're needed, or that you're a burden, but it's not true. You and Pina are always up at the front helping out, and you're the first one to volunteer whenever anyone needs assistance. Even back in SAO, I really looked forward to every moment that I got to spend with you; you're always so fun to talk with and you know both when to be serious and when to have fun. It's something that I've always really admired about you, your ability to balance those so well."

He noticed that her eyes were almost sparkling as they reflected back at him. Kazuto hadn't thought he'd said anything particularly noteworthy, but then again, she'd apparently grown up without anyone acknowledging her. She continued looking up at him expectantly and there was almost a…need in her eyes. _Is this the right moment?_ Kazuto thought. Clearly Keiko thought that it was, but it was up to him to take the first step. _Here goes nothing_.

Slowly, carefully, Kazuto leaned in towards the younger girl. Keiko smiled slightly and closed her eyes in anticipation. A few seconds later, their lips met, both of them enjoying the warmth of the other's skin against their own. After a moment, Kazuto pulled away and watched as Keiko fidgeted a bit.

"That was…my first kiss," she observed.

"Was it what you were expecting?" Kazuto asked, a bit concerned.

His fears were unwarranted. "Yes," she replied, satisfaction evident in her voice, "but…could we…do it some more?"

Kazuto smiled at her and leaned back in. Once again their lips connected, but now both of them were feeling a bit more confident. They both tried to deepen the kiss, interlocking their lips and pressing against each other. But, kissing wasn't enough. While Kazuto's right arm remained behind Keiko's back, pulling her towards him, his left hand began to roam across her body, starting at her head, stroking her soft, silky hair, then slowly descending, first to her back, then to her side, and finally down to her thigh. Keiko gave a slight shudder of pleasure at the foreign touch, enjoying the feeling against her, but suddenly wanting to feel the same thing without an extra layer of fabric in the way. Likewise, Kazuto's pants were beginning to feel extremely tight and restrictive.

Keiko broke off the kiss and pulled away for a moment. "Kazuto," she said gently, "I want…I want you to actually touch me. So, could you…help me with these?" She hoped that she sounded sexy rather than like the awkward clumsy mess that she felt like inside. Fortunately Kazuto seemed to understand as he reached over and grabbed ahold of her shirt, slowly lifting it off as Keiko wriggled her arms inside her sleeves to make the garment easier to slide off. And, off it came, revealing her baby-blue bra underneath, almost the exact same color as her beloved animal companion in ALO.

With her shirt now removed, Keiko laid back and stuck her feet out, inviting Kazuto to remove the lower half of her clothing as well. This was far more intimate as he grabbed around her waistband, feeling the warm, bare skin of her belly and side against his fingers as he tugged the clothing off, leaving Keiko in only her undergarments. Suddenly a bit self-conscious, Keiko moved to cover her small breasts, still embarrassed at their size compared to those of the other girls in their group. "I'm sorry they're so small," she whispered out.

Kazuto reached over and gently pulled her arms away. "You're perfect just the way you are Keiko," he assured her.

Keiko's face reddened a bit at that comment. "A-anyways," she said, "now it looks like it's my turn to help you." Trying her best to be confident, she reached out and pulled up Kazuto's black shirt, turning it inside out as she forced it over his head. Even though she'd seen Kazuto without his shirt earlier in the day, she'd been so busy enjoying the beach that she hadn't actually taken the time to consider how he looked. Anyone who saw him would know that he wasn't the stellar athlete that Suguha was, but he wasn't out of shape by any means. After the years trapped in SAO, there wasn't any noticeable belly fat, and Suguha and Asuna's constant nagging and encouraging to get out and exercise had left him lean and perfectly fit.

Next came the hard part for Keiko. Kazuto seemed to realize it too as he glanced away in embarrassment, despite not making any effort to stop her. Gathering her courage, Keiko gripped his pant legs and slid them off, revealing, to her complete lack of surprise, a pair black boxers underneath. However, the boxers weren't what drew her attention, but rather the obvious tenting coming from within. Keiko had rarely actually sat down and considered sex before, but now her hormones were getting the best of her as she desperately wanted to see even more.

But, that could wait, despite the rising heat she felt from her body, signaling its impatience. With their outer layer of clothing gone, Keiko practically leapt back towards Kazuto, embracing him as their lips clashed again. Kazuto returned to allowing his hand to explore her body, and as expected the feeling was much more intense against her bare skin. Kazuto let his fingers linger for a moment on Keiko's side, eliciting muffled giggling as she reacted to the ticklish sensation, then moved them over to her flat stomach, drawing circles around her navel.

Keiko continued squirming a bit, then decided to launch a counterattack of her own, rubbing her petite hands down Kazuto's back, tussling his hair, then moving in on his thighs, coming perilously close the bulge in his boxers.

Seeing how far things had escalated, Kazuto felt it was time to go farther. His hands found the clasp on Keiko's bra and, after several failed, fumbling attempts, he managed to undo the clasp and allowed the article to fall, revealing Keiko's small, pale breasts underneath. Unable to restrain himself, he brought his hands back around, toppled Keiko onto her back and softly gripped at her chest, Keiko's nipples hardening at the intimate contact.

Keiko gave a pleased sigh, enjoying the treatment, but didn't want to make Kazuto do all the work. Hesitantly, she reached back towards Kazuto's boxers and cautiously touched at it with her hand, feeling something hard underneath, but also something soft connected to it. Kazuto gave a groan at the contact, and Keiko was suddenly struck by the thought of what Rika might do in this situation. "Does that feel good Kirito," she purred, trying to channel as much impishness into her voice as possible.

As a reply, Kazuto lowered his head and kissed her again before bringining his head back up. "Yeah," he admitted, "it does. I didn't expect that you would do something like that."

So, she'd managed to surprise him, had she? Well, that apparently meant that she was on the right track. Keiko continued stroking at his manhood and, letting her lust start to take over, brought her right leg back in order to hook her toes under the waistband of his boxers. Kazuto seemed to realize what was happening, but he was unable to respond before she'd managed to push the item all the way down, leaving Kazuto completely naked. Keiko gazed longingly at his now exposed member.

Kazuto, on the other hand, was now the one who was a little embarrassed, being completely exposed to Keiko as she lay under him. "That doesn't seem very fair," he observed.

In response, Keiko arched her back a bit, raising her butt into the air and inviting Kazuto to even the score. He eagerly obliged, removing her panties and exposing her sex to him.

Now though, with all of their clothing removed, the two were at a loss on how to proceed. Kazuto's instincts were telling him to dive in, but this was Keiko's first time, and she needed to be the one to set the pace. While Keiko was a stranger to anything even close to this, her time around Rika had fortunately given her some idea of what she should do next. "Kirito," she said, sliding herself out from under him and sitting a bit further back on the bed, "Can I…?" she couldn't manage to form the words, but she timidly pointed towards his manhood, making it quite clear what she was proposing.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Kazuto reminded her, not wanting her to do something just because she felt obliged to.

"I want to do it," she assured him. However, she wasn't sure what the best way to go about it would be. In the end, she decided that the simplest thing to do would be to just continue what she'd been doing before. Scooting over next to Kazuto, she brought her hand down until it was gently wrapped around his manhood. It still felt hard, but now that she was touching it directly, the flesh felt extremely warm as well. Now in position, she began to work her hand up and down the shaft, slowly at first due to her nervousness and inexperience, but gradually picking up speed as she gained confidence.

However, she felt Kazuto twitching a bit, and caught sight of what seemed like a fleeting look of discomfort on his face. Was she hurting him? His manhood did feel dry as she rubbed it, and she hadn't really considered that that probably wouldn't be very comfortable. But wasn't this what she was supposed to do?

Then she thought of something else that Rika occasionally would allude to when she was being particularly lewd. Was she really going to do something so naughty? Given that it seemed like the right answer, the choice was obvious. She removed her hand from his shaft and dipped her head down.

Kazuto didn't have any time to react as he realized what Keiko was going to do. "Wha—" he managed to get out before felt a hot, wet feeling around his member as Keiko took it within her mouth. Kazuto groaned and had to move his arms behind him to brace himself against the mattress and avoid simply falling on his back as his body reacted to the new stimulation.

Keiko involuntarily giggled at the reaction as she adjusted to the foreign object in her mouth. She didn't even bother trying to get the whole thing in, but was content to stick with the tip and upper part of the shaft. She began working it back and forth in her mouth, in a similar way to how she had been using her hands earlier, pushing forward, then backward. Feeling a bit daring, she ran her tongue against the shaft for a brief moment, which elicited a wriggle from Kazuto.

Meanwhile Kazuto had adjusted to the sensation and was now able to control himself a bit more. Realizing that he was making Keiko do all the work, he stretched over and gripped around her waist, managing to pick the small girl up slightly and rotate her to where the two were almost at right angles with each other. Keiko gave a muffled squeak at the unexpected change in position, but trusted Kazuto enough to not break her mouth away from his member.

Her trust was rewarded as she felt Kazuto's hand rubbing against her entrance. Now it was her turn to squirm a bit, her sensitive womanhood unused to such contact. Kazuto's other hand found its way to her head, where it gently stroked her hair, similar to how one would pet a dog. Some girls might have found such treatment insulting, but Keiko just smiled as much as she was able with Kazuto's member in her mouth, finding the pets to be endearing, an intimate sign of affection.

To Kazuto's relief, Keiko's entrance was already moist as he slid one of his fingers between the folds of her lower lips. As Keiko continued to attack his manhood with her mouth, her oral thrusts coming more rapidly, he decided to escalate along with her. Spreading her folds, he tried to insert a finger inside, only getting it in partially before he felt it stop. Keiko gave a stifled cry, her inner walls twitching around the invading digit. As Keiko's body shuddered, Kazuto grinned, pleased that his efforts were succeeding.

Then he gasped as Keiko lightly ran her teeth along his shaft and he found himself starting to shake involuntarily. "Silica!" he yelped out, accidentally slipping into her in-game in the heat of the moment. Suddenly, the warmth around his manhood disappeared and Keiko reluctantly pulled herself off of Kazuto's finger, shifting back to a sitting position now across from Kazuto. Kazuto gritted his teeth at the denial of his climax, but didn't say anything. Instead, he apologized, though his pulsing manhood made it difficult to really focus on anything else. "Sorry for calling you by your in-game name," he said.

"I don't mind," Keiko assured him, "I mean, that was how we met each other after all. But…" She looked at his member again. "I…I still want you to give me a baby Kazuto. That means you have to let it out…here," she said, indicating her now soaking womanhood.

Now Kazuto understood why she'd pulled away when she had. And yet, he couldn't in good conscience move on just yet. "Alright," he said, "I'll do my best to give you what you want. But first…" he took Keiko's arms and slowly lowered her onto her back. Not understanding at first, she had a surprised look on her face, but the look was replaced moments later by a blissful expression as Kazuto buried his face into her womanhood. Her fists clenched and her face scrunched up in pleasure as Kazuto lapped up the wetness around her entrance. The feeling of his tongue was ticklish, and felt incredible against her hyper-sensitive slit.

Then she felt Kazuto's tongue actually flicking in between her folds before making its way further inside her. His finger earlier had felt nice, it had been dry and bony, and not altogether comfortable. But his tongue on the other had was wet and fleshy, causing Keiko to wail in delight at the feeling. As his tongue flicked back out and began circling around the small nub at the top of her womanhood, the pleasure intensified, and ripples of ecstasy began coursing through Keiko's body, starting at her fingertips and shooting their way all the way down to her toes.

Kazuto noticed Keiko's reaction and redoubled his efforts, trying his best to alternate between attacking her clit and licking around her inner walls. Keiko suddenly let out a loud whine, her legs kicking uncontrollably. In order to avoid being struck in the head, Kazuto grabbed onto Keiko's legs in order to keep them still as she flailed around, consumed by an irresistible flood of pleasure.

After about a minute of being unable to control herself, Keiko finally began to regain her composure, allowing her breathing to slow a bit and reassert control over her body. "That was…amazing…Kirito," she managed to gasp out. Kazuto just rubbed the back of his head, unable to come up with an appropriate response. But, now that the surge of pleasure had passed, Keiko remembered that she wasn't done yet. "I think I'm ready now," she said softly, hoping that she sounded more confident than she felt. This was the point of no return, but she'd made up her mind long ago. This is what she wanted. "Could you…lay on your back, Kirito?" she asked.

Sensing what she had in mind, Kazuto did as Keiko instructed and lay back, his member left sticking up in the air. Carefully, Keiko positioned her petite body on top of Kazuto until her entrance was lined up with his manhood. This was it.

With a deep breath, Keiko braced herself as she slowly slid herself down onto Kazuto's shaft. She gave a slight grimace as Kazuto's manhood entered into her, but to her surprise, it didn't actually hurt. It did feel quite strange to have something of that size inside her, but even though it was definitely weird, it wasn't at all painful. She continued to sink down until she'd fully hilted Kazuto, taking a moment to stop and adjust to having his shaft inside of her.

"Are you okay Keiko?" Kazuto asked, a bit concerned, given that this was the girl's first time.

She nodded. "Yeah, I'm okay," she said "It's just…could you…hold me?" Kazuto smiled back, wrapping his arms around her back and pulling her towards him as she slowly began to raise and lower herself on his shaft. It had been so long since Kazuto had actually experienced this, and never before had he actually felt this in the real world. Keiko's womanhood was tight around him, its warmth putting Keiko's earlier treatment with her mouth seem like nothing in comparison. It gripped his manhood in its velvety embrace, and after Keiko's earlier blowjob, he was worried that he might not last very long.

Likewise, Keiko was now swimming in pleasure, her eyes becoming slightly glazed with lustful ecstasy as felt Kazuto's manhood enter and withdraw with each lowering and raising of her hips. Hungry for more, she drew in and kissed Kazuto passionately, trying her best to move her hips faster and faster. It was a little bit awkward given the height difference between the two, but that just made everything even more worthwhile.

Now with his lips interlocked with Keiko's once again, Kazuto began to feel pressure building within him. With such a beautiful girl on top of him, it would have been strange if he hadn't been struggling to contain himself. _Not yet_ , he begged his body, _give it time_ … He allowed his tongue to enter Keiko's mouth, causing the girl's eyes to widen in surprise, but she didn't seem to mind and in fact allowed her own tongue to swirl around Kazuto's. Taking one of his hands back from behind Keiko, Kazuto brought it forward and began fondling the girl's right breast, causing Keiko to give a whine in response.

Kazuto was finding it more and more difficult to think. The pleasure was building so rapidly that he wouldn't be able to control himself for much longer. He had to let loose. "Keiko!" he gasped, "I'm close!"

Hearing his words, Keiko stopped her movements. "Kirito," she urged, "flip me over!"

Her request left Kazuto confused for a moment, until he remembered what the purpose behind all of this was. She wanted to be on her back. She wanted him on top. Gravity. Of course! Wrapping both arms around Keiko again, he rolled so that she ended up underneath him. Of course, now the onus was him to make the movements and bring their joining to its finale. Gathering his remaining strength, Kazuto moved his hips like a piston, sliding his member in and out of Keiko's womanhood as quickly as he could. Beneath him, Keiko began letting out slight gasps of pleasure at his thrusts and Kazuto swore that he saw a tiny bit of drool coming out the side of her mouth as it remained slack.

"Keiko!" he warned again, "I'm…about…to…"

With a bit of difficulty, she swung her legs up so that they rested on his shoulders as he continued moving in and out of her, leaving her tiny butt just above the mattress. The pressure became too much to bear and Kazuto's body started to tremble. With one final push, he rammed his manhood as far it could go and he felt his lower body shake as he jetted inside of Keiko, depositing his load directly into the girl's womb.

Keiko cried out at the sensation of Kazuto releasing inside of her. It felt so…warm. Kazuto withdrew from within her, now spent after his climax. Keiko lowered her hips and looked down towards her entrance, somewhat happy to not see any of Kazuto's fluid escaping from within her. This had been everything that she could have dreamed of. But, she did feel a bit disappointed. Now, it was all over.

Or not. Despite Kazuto finally moving off of her and rolling onto the bed next to her, clearly exhausted, he still mustered the energy to lean his head over and kiss her again. Unlike some of their prior kisses, this wasn't one full of passion or lust, but a simple kiss of love and affection. Keiko felt like there butterflies in her stomach and her body seemed to flutter as she reciprocated the kiss.

After a moment, Kazuto pulled away. "Thank you for all of this Keiko," he said with a warm smile on his face, "I hope that you're happy, and I promise I'll be with you the whole way, no matter what."

"It was perfect," Keiko said softly, a happy expression on her face, "and…I promise to be there for you too. You really are my hero." She involuntarily gave a yawn, unaware until now just how tired she was after their romp.

Her yawn was contagious, as Kazuto soon gave one as well. Keiko chuckled a bit at that, and he joined her. "I guess that took more out of us that we figured, huh?" Kazuto noted.

"Yeah," Keiko agreed, "I'm sleepy now."

"Alright then sleepyhead," Kazuto teased, reaching over to turn off the light in the room, "I guess we're both done for now then."

"Mhhm," Keiko let out in reply, her eyes already closed. Kazuto leaned over and ruffled her hair one last time, and she managed to sneak in a quick peck on his cheek. With that, the two lovers finally laid down and let sleep take them. Keiko drifted off first, smiling happily as she continued to feel the warmth of Kazuto's seed within her.

As for Kazuto, that night he had the best sleep he'd had in a long time.

* * *

 **Debriefing**

 **So, I really like this style, so I think I'll keep doing this where I give general author's notes up top, then including extra tidbits (sort of a behind the scene type of thing) here at the bottom in the form of a debriefing.**

 **Anyways, congratulations to everyone who's read this far! You've gotten to read the first lemon that I've ever written, so I hope it wasn't too bad. It was extremely tricky for me to feel like I was getting everything right, despite actually taking me less time overall than most of the rest of this chapter (about 2 days of research and subsequent writing). There's not much out there for scenes like this between Keiko and Kazuto, as I've noted before, so I struggled a bit to try finding the right chemistry that the two would likely share in a situation like this. Since they're both rather shy and inexperienced, I focused on that as one of the dominant themes of the scene, with neither one really knowing what to do beyond instinct and comments from other people (plus one prior experience, in Kazuto's case).**

 **As for Keiko's backstory, I always found it interesting that we really never heard anything about her parents. But, given their absence, the fact that Keiko seems far more attached to Pina (her cat) than to anyone else as far as who she misses while in SAO, and the fact that she managed to be playing SAO at such a young age in the first place makes me think that her parents are relatively absent. Given their odd naming convention, I thought it appropriate to have them as academic workaholics, content to largely let Keiko take care of herself.**

 **The show that Keiko and Kazuto watch is episode 10 of the "Planet Earth" BBC documentary series. I've long imagined Keiko as being big into animals and nature, and this gave me a chance to show that off a bit. Unfortunately, from what I could find the series is not currently licensed to air in Japan despite being more than 10 years old, but seeing as this is around 2026, I can act as though it's airing there by that time.**

 **Regarding the initial scene with Kazuto's nightmare and his conversation with Shino, I really wanted to have an opportunity to close out that particular part of Kazuto's character arc. It never really felt like we got a proper resolution to his lingering guilt over the Black Cats and their fate, plus he still hasn't figured out that his life actually means just as much as the lives of those around him. I had an opportunity to kind of kill two birds with one stone here, and had a blast writing it out. Plus, it gave me the opportunity to tease Shino as a counselor/therapist, which was pretty fun!**

 **The water gun fight scene was a shoutout to both my own youth and to a few external influences, such as the water gun fight in Higurashi No Naku Koroni. The capture the flag element also drew from my childhood (though we tended to do a form of flashlight capture the flag rather than playing with water guns), and also incorporated tactics you might found out a MOBA like Heroes of the Storm or League of Legends. Kirito's a big gamer, so it's natural for him to be aware of the concept, and it was fun to hve him consider the ending as a "team wipe."**

 **Kazuto's thoughts regarding Suguha and her potential to become an olympic swimmer are actually a shoutout to "Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc" which sees one of its characters, one who is considered as the "Ultimate Swimmer" and an upcoming olympic competitor, voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris, who also voices Suguha.**

 **There were some more Toradora! inspirations here, particularly with the curry dinner. I wanted to see all these characters try cooking together, and even though it ended up not coming together quite the way I'd hoped, I'm still glad that I managed to fit it in somehow.**

 **I don't have a whole lot of specifics to say about it, but I really wanted the chance to show a softer side of Rika, so her scene with Keiko meant a lot to me. She really does care about the group even if she gives them crap most of the time.**

 **The idea of Keiko with her hair down and without her iconic pigtails (or whatever the precise hairstyle is called) came from a piece of artwork I found on Reddit, which can be found here:** r/swordartonline/comments/9emzgf/her_priceless_smile_weekly_silica_lxxii/

 **I had one reviewer who clearly has gotten a rather negative impression of Argo, so hopefully I can start to change their mind on her from here on out. She's a great character and it pains me to think that I've caused someone to sour on her.**

 **As always, I'm continuously working on editing and adjusting this to make it more satisfactory to me. So, if there's anything that you think should be modified/adjusted/corrected, feel free to let me know! If I agree, I'll consider making the change to the story.**

 **Lastly, I said I had an announcement, but I'm sure it'll annoy some people. I'm going to stop giving any kind of predictions on when the next chapters will be released. I received quite a few reviews and PMs letting me know that people were concerned that this story was dead, or expressing impatience as to the next update. Well, the next update probably won't be any quicker than this one, and might actually be longer in coming. The truth is that I'm a full time law student and am now working 20 hours a week as well. On top of that, I have some additional stories on my main account that have been languishing for nearly a year, and which I desperately need to devote some attention to. So, while I can assure you that this story WILL continue and is far from dead, you might have to be patient to see later chapters. Unlike some authors, I don't have prewritten material that allows me to post regularly; I write as I go. I sincerely hope that you'll all understand and bear with me throughout this.**

 **Anyways, thanks again, and I'll see you all next time!**


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